r 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


I 
Joseph  Husskm,SJ.,Ph.0. 


ASSOCIATE    EDITOR    OF      AMERICA/     LECTURER    FORDHAM 
UNIVERSITY    SCHOOL    OF    SOCIAL    SERVICE,    AUTHOR 

OF   "the   world   problem/'    "democratic 

industry/'  "evolution  and  social 

progress/'  etc. 


Published  hy 

MATRE    &    COMPANY 

CHICAGO 

1921 


Smprimi  Potest: 

Franciscus  X.  McMenamy,  S.J. 
Praepositus  Provincialis,  Provinciae  Missouriensis. 


^iilil  ©bstat: 

P.   L.    BlERMANN, 
Censor  Deputatus. 

hnptimsAntt 

^Georgius  Gulielmus  Mundelein, 
Archie pisco pus  Chicagiensis. 

die  25,  Septembris,  1921 


COPYRIGHT,   1921,  BY   MATRE  AND  COMPANY. 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 

PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


HI) 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PART  I 
Capital  and  Labor 
Chapter  Page 

Introduction    vii-viii 

I     THE  CORNER  STONE  OF  SOCIAL 

JUSTICE 13 

A  Living  Wage 13 

(a)  Nature  of  the  Living  Wage 13 

(b)  Attainment  of  a  Living  Wage.  ...  16 

(c)  Providing  for  the  Future 18 

(d)  The  Problem  of  Unemployment.  . .  20 

II    CHRISTIAN   UNIONISM    OR    RED 

RADICALISM    26 

Labor  Organizations 26 

(a)  The  Catholic  Traditions 27 

(b)  Christian  Ideals  or  Marxism 29 

(c)  Catholic  Labor  Unionists 33 

III  JUNGLE     WAR     OR     CHRISTIAN 

PEACE   36 

The  Class  Struggle 36 

(a)  Theory  of  the  Class  Struggle 37 

(b)  The  Right  to  Strike 39 

(c)  Christian  Peace    43 

(d)  Arbitration  and  Conciliation 46 

IV  WOMAN    AT    THE    WHEEL    OF 

INDUSTRY  .' 48 

The  Woman  Laborer 48 

(a)  Woman's  Ideal  Place 49 


.  1174400 


Chapter  Page 

(b)  Woman  in  the  Labor  World 51 

(c)  Protecting  the  Woman  Worker. ...  53 

V     CAPITALISM,    PAST    AND    PRES- 
ENT     58 

Church  and  Capitalism 58 

(a)  Private  Capital 60 

(b)  Historic  Capitalism 61 

(c)  Present-day  Capitalism 65 

VI     DEMOCRACY  IN  INDUSTRY 68 

Social  Reconstruction" 68 

(a)  Proletarian  Dictatorship 68 

(b)  Catholic  Industrial  Ideals 72 

(c)  Looking  Towards  the  Dawn 74 

VII    COPARTNERSHIP    AND    CO- 
OPERATION    78 

Modern  Gild  Ideals 78 

(a)  Copartnership  and  Profit  Sharing.  .  78 

(b)  Cooperation    81 

(c)  Cooperative    Production 83 

(d)  Modem  Gild  Systems 85 

VIII    LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  IN  ONE. . .  88 
Is      Cooperative      Production 

Workable? 88 

(a)  A  Christian  Ideal 88 

(b)  When  Labor  Becomes  Capital 91 

(c)  Taking  a  Leaf  from  Capitalism. ...  93 


PART  II 
Christian  Democracy 
Chapter                                                            Page 
IX     HUMAN  EQUALITY   99 

(a)  The   True   Concept 99 

(b)  Church  and  Social  Justice 102 

(c)  Common    Brotherhood    105 

(d)  Kinds  of  Equality 108 

X     PRIVATE  OWNERSHIP 112 

(a)  The  Church's  Doctrine 112 

(b)  The  Socialist  Attitude 117 

(c)  Under   Christian   Democracy 119 

XI     OZANAM    ON    POVERTY    AND 

WEALTH    124 

(a)  "Back  to  the  Masses!" 124 

(b)  The  Virtue  of   Alms-giving 128 

(c)  The  Good   Samaritan 131 

XII     CHRISTIAN  CHARITY 135 

(a)  The  Science  of  Charity 135 

(b)  Christ  in  the  Poor 139 

(c)  The  Poor  Always  With  Us 142 

(d)  Three   Classes  of   Catholic   Charity 

Workers 146 

(e)  Catholic  Efficiency   148 

CATHOLIC    SOCIAL    ACTION- 
PIUS  X 154 

THE  APOSTOLIC  RULE 159 


Vll 

INTRODUCTORY 

The  purpose  of  the  following  book  is  to  offer,  for 
the  use  of  all,  a  brief  but  suggestive  exposition  of 
the  Christian  principles  underlying  the  great  social 
problems  of  the  day.  It  discusses,  to  this  end,  the 
questions  of  wages,  of  labor  unions,  of  strikes  and 
the  class  struggle,  of  woman  labor  and  its  proper 
safeguards,  of  Socialism,  capitalism  and  industrial 
democracy. 

From  the  consideration  of  the  issues  of  justice 
and  charity  involved  in  the  relations  between  capital 
and  labor  it  passes  to  the  vital  problem  of  coopera- 
tion and  the  application  of  the  gild  idea  to  modern 
industrial  conditions. 

The  watchwords  of  human  equality  and  frater- 
nity, and  the  rights  of  private  property,  are  then  ex- 
amined. Full  attention  is  given  throughout  the 
various  chapters  to  the  contentions  of  Socialism. 
This  is  also  true  of  the  final  chapters  that  deal  with 
the  subjects  of  poverty  and  wealth,  and  of  Christian 
charity  as  scientifically  applied  in  our  own  day. 

Careful  references  are  made  in  the  first  six  chajH 
ters  to  the  author's  two  volumes  that  more  amply 
develop  the  germ-ideas  contained  in  this  part  of  the 
book,  and  together  explain  the  industrial  question 
from  a  theoretical,  practical  and  historical  point  of 


Vlll 


view.  The  favorable  reception  given  to  these  two 
volumes,  ''The  World  Problem"  and  "Democratic 
Industry,"  as  also  to  the  author's  latest  work  on 
"Evolution  and  Social  Progress,"  encourage  the 
writer  in  the  hope  that  there  will  be  a  wide  and 
fruitful  field  for  the  present  book  in  its  popular 
editions. 

For  the  insistence  placed  here  upon  the  intimate 
connection  between  economics  and  religion,  between 
the  industrial  problems  and  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, no  apology  is  needed.  It  may  be  well,  how- 
ever, to  quote  the  following  brief  authoritative  pas- 
sages to  show  how  Catholics,  Protestants  and  So- 
cialists agree  upon  this  most  important  point.  In 
the  opinion  of  Marx  and  his  consistent  followers, 
the  perfect  acceptance  of  Socialism  must  also  imply 
the  complete  rejection  of  the  Church  and  of  all 
supernatural  religion. 


IX 


The  Catholic  Church  Speaks 

"It  is  the  opinion  of  some,  and  the  error  is  already 
very  common,  that  the  social  question  is  merely  an 
economic  one,  whereas  in  point  of  fact  it  is  above 
all  a  moral  and  religious  matter,  and  for  that  reason 
must  be  settled  by  the  principles  of  morality  and 
according  to  the  dictates  of  religion.  For  even 
though  wages  are  doubled  and  the  hours  of  labor 
are  shortened,  and  food  is  cheapened,  yet  if  the 
workingman  harkens  to  the  doctrines  that  are 
taught  on  this  subject,  ens  he  is  prone  to  do,  and  is 
prompted  by  the  examples  set  before  him  to  throw 
off  respect  for  God  and  to  enter  upon  a  life  of  im- 
morality, his  labors  and  his  gain  will  avail  him 
naught/' 

"Civil  society,  no  less  than  religion,  is  imperiled; 
it  is  the  sacred  duty  of  every  right-minded  m^n  to 
be  up  in  defense  of  both  the  one  and  the  other." — 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  Encyclical  on  "Christian  Democ- 
racy," Jan.  1 8,  1 901. 


The  Protestant  Endorsement 

''In  no  case  can  the  Christian  admit  that  there  can 
he  any  permanent  divorce  between  religion  and 
economics,  since  no  aspect  of  life  is  to  be  exempt 
from  the  sway  of  Christ.  Unless  Christian  prin- 
ciples are  really  applicable  to  industry,  we  cannot 
claim  finality  or  universality  for  Christianity. 
Whether  the  -final  consummation  of  the  ideal  is  to 
come  sooner  or  later,  by  sloiv  degree  or  by  sudden 
cataclysm,  it  is  our  plain  and  unescapable  responsi- 
bility as  Christians  to  give  ourselves  with  all  our 
might  to  Christianising  all  our  social  life.'* — Com- 
mittee on  the  War  and  Religious  Outlook  (represent- 
ing thirty-two  Protestant  denominations.) 


What  Marx  Held 

"This  economic — and  notliing  but  economic — 
Socialism  is  a  metaphysical  abstraction.  One  of  the 
greatest  insights  of  Marx  zvas  that  of  the  connec- 
tions of  the  economic  with  tJte  other  aspects  of 
human  life.  And  Socialism  as  a  revolutionary 
theory  of  society  implies  an  ethical,  religious  and 
political  revolution  as  a  consequence  of  the  economic 
one." — Belfort  Bax  (Socialist) ,  "Commonwealth" 
Vol.  IV,  No.  ii6. 


PART  ONE 
CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 


13 


First  Chapter 
The  Corner  Stone  of  Social  Justice 

A  LiviN'G  Wage 

Man  is  a  human  being,  made  to  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God,  and  destined  for  higher  things  than 
merely  the  amassing  of  personal  wealth  or  the  en- 
richment of  a  capitalist  employer.  This  truth  is 
fundamental  in  all  Christian  sociology.  The  im- 
mediate purpose  of  industry  is  not  the  accumulation 
of  profits,  as  men  in  practice  believed  during  the 
era  of  industrialism  that  followed  upon  the  decad- 
ence of  the  medieval  gilds,  but  the  provision  of  a 
decent  livelihood  for  all  engaged  in  the  noble  work 
of  production  for  the  common  good.  It  is  not  to 
enable  a  few  to  live  luxuriously  and  to  cumber  the 
earth  with  their  palaces  and  villas,  but  to  enable  all 
who  deserve  it  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  faithful  toil. 
Rudimentary  as  this  truth  is,  the  world  has  failed 
to  grasp  it.  Capital  and  labor  alike  have  lost  their 
hold  upon  the  vital  Christian  principles  that  once 
were  so  clearly  understood  in  the  Ages  of  Faith. 

/.    Nature  of  the  Living  Wage* 

The  earth  was  created  for  all  alike.  Directly,  by 
its   cultivation;   or  indirectly,  by  the  processes  of 

♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  91-95,  108,  114,  147, 
148.  259. 


14  NATURE  OF  THE  LIVING  WAGE 

industry  and  commerce  or  by  any  other  worthy 
service,  the  worker  has  a  right  to  draw  subsistence 
from  it.  The  mental  no  less  than  the  manual  worker, 
and  the  spiritual  laborer  as  well,  who  confers  on 
mankind  the  highest  boon  of  all,  are  deserving  of 
their  hire.  Even  the  humblest  toiler  has  the  right 
to  have  his  human  needs  supplied  in  return  for  his 
honest  labor.  For  the  majority  this  is  possible  only 
through  the  living  wage. 

The  living  wage  is  defined  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  as 
a  wage  "sufficient  to  support  the  wage-earner  in 
reasonable  and  frugal  comfort."  Such  comfort 
implies  the  satisfaction  of  all  real  human  needs. 
These  are  not  merely  physical,  but  educational, 
recreational,  moral  and  religious  as  well.  It  should 
enable  him  further  to  provide  for  a  family  in 
Christian  decency,  that  the  mother  of  the  home 
may  abide  with  her  children,  caring  for  their  bodily 
wants,  training  their  docile  minds,  and  guiding 
them  in  the  path  of  virtue  and  religion.  Such  is 
the  Christian  ideal.  It  should  finally  make  it  pos- 
sible for  him,  by  thrift  and  temperance,  to  lay  aside 
sufficient  for  future  emergencies,  or  to  insure  him- 
self against  them. 

Opportunity  should  be  given  the  worker  for  a 
wholesome    and    cheerful    family    life.     Housing 


NATURE  OF  THE  LIVING  WAGE  15 

facilities  will  naturally  differ  in  the  various  locali- 
ties. The  same  conditions  are  not  equally  attainable 
in  all  cities.  But  the  worker  should  be  able  to 
enjoy,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  the  happiness 
of  home,  with  the  reasonable  comfort  that  this  sup- 
poses. The  wage  of  the  woman  worker  must  be 
sufficient  at  least  for  her  own  support,  independently 
of  any  assistance  from  others,  thus  removing-  from 
her  the  dangers,  physical  and  moral,  which  poverty 
often  brings  to  her.  The  wage  of  the  adult  male 
worker  should  at  least  suffice  for  an  average  family. 
The  question  whether  the  obligation  of  the  em- 
ployer to  pay  a  wage  sufficient,  in  the  case  of  a 
married  worker,  to  support  wife  and  children, 
should  be  considered  an  obligation  of  justice  or  of 
charity  is  answered  variously  by  Catholic  moralists. 
Yet  charity,  we  must  remember,  is  no  less  binding 
than  justice.  Some  stipulate  that  such  assistance 
be  further  contributed  towards  the  family  support 
as  wife  and  children  can  reasonably  give.  Literally 
taken,  the  labor  encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  refers  only 
to  the  obligation  in  justice  of  paying  a  wage 
adequate  for  the  support  of  the  laborer  himself,  but 
he  evidently  desires  that  it  should  also  suffice  for 
the  support  of  wife  and  children.  There  is  question 
here,  be  it  clearly  understood,  of  the  very  least  wage 


16  ATTAIN'MENT   OF   A    LIVING   WAGE 

that  must  be  paid,  and  not  of  what  should  in  any 
given  instance  be  offered  as  proper  and  befitting,  so 
that  the  laborer's  wages  may  be  adequately  propor- 
tioned to  his  contribution  to  industry. 

//.  Attainment  of  a  Living  Wage* 
The  mere  operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  cannot  be  counted  upon  permanently  to 
secure  a  living  wage  for  all.  Neither  is  it  attainable 
through  the  conversion  of  selfish  capital  or  even 
through  the  unaided  efforts  of  altruistic  emplo3'^ers. 
The  latter  will  often  be  forced  to  yield  to  the  condi- 
tions imposed  by  competition  with  unscrupulous 
rivals. 

Even  the  trade  unions,  though  gradually  embrac- 
ing larger  numbers  of  unskilled  workers,  are  far 
from  extending  to  all.  This  is  particularly  true 
where  there  is  question  of  the  multitude  of  women 
workers.  Labor  unions  are  naturally  interested 
primarily  or  exclusively  in  the  organized  worker 
alone,  although  indirectly  their  influence  also  affects 
the  lot  of  the  unorganized.  It  must  further  be 
taken  into  account  that  the  success  of  unionism  in 
one  period,  under  economic  conditions  favorable  to 
its  development,  is  no  guarantee  of  its  position  on 
the  morrow. 
♦Consult :    "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  87-91,  95-98. 


ATTAIN'MENT   OF   A    LIVING   WAGE  17 

The  Stable  attainment  of  a  living  wage  for  all 
unable  to  protect  themselves  is  possible  only- 
through  wage  legislation.  Such  legislation  is  a 
tradition  in  the  Church.  Wages,  in  gild  days,  were 
minutely  regulated  by  gild  statutes,  which,  in  turn, 
were  authorized  by  the  State  or  municipality.  In 
their  "Social  Reconstruction"  the  American  Bishops 
demand  a  legal  minimum  wage  (p.  17).  Minimum- 
wage  laws  for  women  and  children  have  been  intro- 
duced into  many  parts  of  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain.  They  had  long  before  been  success- 
ful elsewhere.  For  those  unable  to  earn  the  legal 
minimum,  special  provisions  are  made  that  they 
may  not  be  excluded  from  whatever  participation  in 
gainful  occupation  may  be  possible  for  them.  Such 
laws  hardly  call  for  any  defense  at  the  present  time. 

Minimum-wage  laws  for  adult  male  workers  have 
been  less  common,  because  less  imperatively  needed. 
They  are  necessary  to  whatever  extent  a  living  wage 
may  be  impossible  of  attainment  without  them. 

Finally,  that  such  laws  may  be  effective,  minimum- 
wage  boards  are  required,  on  which  capital,  labor 
and  the  public  are  fairly  represented  to  adjust  the 
wages  to  the  changing  conditions  of  prices  and 
similar  considerations.  Careful  investigation  is 
made  into  the  cost  of  living  and  minimum-wage 


18  PROVIDING   FOR  THE  FUTURE 

rates  are  recommended.  If,  after  public  hearings 
have  been  held,  these  are  found  satisfactory,  they 
are  accepted  and  promulgated  as  minimum-wage 
legislation. 

Yet  the  minimum  wage  is  not,  any  more  than 
countless  other  measures,  to  be  regarded  as  a 
panacea.  It  must  be  supplemented  by  additional 
legislation,  wisely  planned  to  meet  the  occurring 
difficulties.  Excessive  legislation  is  a  futility  and  a 
danger.  An  extensive  study  of  this  subject  has  been 
offered  by  Dr.  Ryan  in  his  "Living  Wage"  and 
"Distributive  Justice." 

///.    Providing  for  the  Future* 

The  living  wage  must  obviously  suffice  both  for 
present  and  future  needs  and  emergencies,  provided 
that  the  virtue  of  thrift  is  not  disregarded.  The 
laborer  must  clearly  be  protected  against  want  in 
sickness  and  old  age.  Involuntary  unemployment 
should  not  be  permitted  to  plunge  both  him  and  his 
family  into  hopeless  misery,  or  make  them  depend- 
ent upon  charity. 

Social  insurance  against  sickness,  invalidity,  un- 
employment and  old  age  is  therefore  to  be  favored 
and  legally  promoted, — ^but  in  so  far  only  as  it  may 


♦Consult:  "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  192-200. 


PROVIDING   FOR  THE  FUTURE  19 

be  a  temporary  necessity.  It  is  not  to  be  aimed  at 
as  a  final  measure.  Accepted  in  the  latter  sense,  it 
would  make  of  the  worker  a  mere  ward  of  the  State. 
Social  insurance,  in  other  words,  must  not  become  a 
substitute  for  a  real  living  wage.  The  minimum- 
wage  should  gradually  be  increased  until  it  enables 
the  worker  to  carry  his  own  insurance  and  so  retain 
his  rightful  independence.  Where  such  a  wage 
exists  there  is  no  reason  for  State  insurance,  which 
then  becomes  merely  a  part  of  State  paternalism, 
If  social  insurance  is  needed  it  should,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, be  levied  on  the  industry.  Personal  insurance 
of  certain  kinds  may,  if  necessar}^  be  made  obliga- 
tory; but  with  great  care  not  to  infringe  on  true 
personal  liberty. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  fitting  that  the  worker  be 
remunerated,  not  with  a  mere  minimum,  but  with 
a  wage  adequately  in  proportion  with  his  individual 
contribution  to  industry  and  to  the  nation's  pros- 
perity. Neither,  however,  should  he  demand  more 
than  the  common  good  allows.  Both  wages  and 
profits  must  be  strictly  circumscribed  by  this.  Ex- 
ceptional enterprise  or  industry-  deserves  an  excep- 
tional reward,  but  under  no  conditions  should  this 
be  permitted  to  become  excessive,  whether  on  the 
part  of  capital,  management,  or  labor. 


20  THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT 

Above  all  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  first 
moral  charge  on  industry  is  the  laborer's  right  to  a 
decent  livelihood.  This  principle  flows  from  the 
fact  stated  in  the  beginning,  that  the  purpose  of 
industry  is  not  profits,  but  a  proper  Christian  living 
for  all  who  participate  in  it.  To  refer  once  more 
to  the  Bishops'  document:  "The  employer  has  a 
right  to  get  a  reasonable  living  out  of  his  business, 
but  he  has  no  right  to  interest  on  his  investment, 
until  his  employees  have  obtained  at  least  a  living 
wage.  This  is  the  human  and  Christian,  in  contrast 
to  the  purely  commercial  and  pagan,  ethics  of  in- 
dustry" (p.  24). 

IV.     The  Problem  of  Unemployment* 

But  what  of  those  periods,  the  most  tragic  in  the 

life  of  the  laborer,  when  all  wages  cease,  the  days 

of  unemployment?     "For  six  months  of  our  first 

year  of  married  life,"  Mr.  Whiting  Williams  quotes 

the  wife  of  a  South  Wales  miner  as  saying,  "there 

been  no  work  for  me  man.     Thirty  years  ago  that 

been,  but  a  bitter  memory  'twill  be — aye,  for  the 

rest  of  our  days." 

Unemployment  has  been  a  chronic  evil  under  our 

modern  economic  system.     The  number  of  unem- 

*Consult:  "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  15,   16  and  Chapters 
XIII  and  XIV. 


i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT  21 

ployed  in  the  United  States,  during  the  worst  days 
that  followed  the  abnormal  war  conditions,  can 
be  set  at  close  to  6,000,000.  There  were  normally 
about  1,000,000  unemployed.  Yet  nothing  is 
more  pathetic  than  unemployment,  with  its  great 
underlying  tragedy  of  the  home.  Men  can  be  seen 
wandering  idly  through  the  streets,  or  standing  in 
despondent  crowds  before  employment  offices,  or 
waiting  in  long  lines  answering  the  latest  advertise- 
ments in  the  "want  columns"  of  the  daily  papers. 
There  are  those  among  them  who  still  gaily  face 
the  world,  although  their  outward  joviality  may 
merely  hide  a  heavy  heart.  Others  appear  worn 
and  wasted  as  we  see  them  standing  in  the  anxious 
row  before  an  advertiser's  gate,  that  now  is  late  and 
slow  in  opening.  Here  and  there  a  man  drops  out, 
despairing  of  his  chances,  and  instinctively  the  line 
is  closed  again.  Seldom  is  discontent  more  success- 
fully spread  than  at  such  a  time. 

Is  there  then  no  way  of  preventing  the  constant 
recurrence  of  this  calamity?  That  is  the  question 
statesmen,  sociologists  and  the  workers  have  been 
asking  these  many  years.  "Do  away  with  your  sys- 
tem of  profits,"  the  Socialist  exclaims  with  an  as- 
surance that  wins  him  many  followers.  "Let  the 
community  own  and  manage  the  means  of  produc- 


22  THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT 

tion  and  distribution."  That,  indeed,  would  end 
starvation  under  capitalism,  but  in  all  probabilty 
would  exchange  it  for  a  starvation  still  more  wide- 
spread and  terrible  under  a  proletarian  dictatorship 
or  a  Socialist  bureaucracy.  It  implies  at  all  events 
a  permanent  slavery  to  which  free  men  cannot  per- 
mit themselves  to  be  subjected.  If  "wage-slavery" 
is  regarded  as  a  reality  under  the  present  system,  it 
certainly  cannot  be  cured  by  a  transformation  into 
a  State-slavery  that  would  be  far  more  galling. 

There  is  one  remedy  for  the  economic  bungling 
and  greed  for  profits  which  intensify  the  evil 
of  unemployment.  It  is  pithily  expressed  in  the 
words  of  the  American  Bishops  when  they  say :  "The 
majority  must  somehow  become  owners  (i.  e.  indi- 
vidually and  not  collectively),  or  at  least  in  part,  of 
the  instruments  of  production."  Private  ownership 
under  copartnership  and  free  cooperative  production, 
to  which  reference  is  here  made,  will  establish  the 
interest  of  the  worker,  and  not  profits,  as  the  prime 
concern  in  industry.  But  that  millennium,  though 
we  must  ever  keep  it  in  sight,  is  still  in  the  distance. 
In  the  mean  time  millions  of  families  are  left  to 
starvation.  What  then  can  be  done  for  the  imme- 
diate present? 

In  seeking  to  answer  this  question  we  are  not  con- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT  23 

fronted,  as  it  might  seem,  with  the  riddle  of  a 
Sphinx.  A  constructive  program  was  carefully 
worked  out  by  the  American  Association  for  Labor 
Legislation.  Its  greatest  recommendation,  in  the 
main,  is  its  obviousness.  In  substantial  agreement 
with  it  were  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  Inter- 
national Labor  Conference  at  Washington. 

The  first  remedy  suggested  is  the  establishment  of 
public  employment  exchanges.  No  one  can  question 
the  wisdom  of  this  plan.  The  second  is  a  systematic 
distribution  of  public  works,  including  the  regular 
public  occupations.  But  here  it  must  be  cautioned 
that  emergency  work,  reserved  by  State  or  munici- 
pality for  seasons  of  unemployment,  may  often  do 
more  harm  than  good  by  unreasonably  high  wages 
which  politicians  are  induced  to  offer.  These  draw 
men  away  from  other  and  necessary  occupations,  and 
so  precipitate  a  worse  confusion.  The  third  remedy 
is  perhaps  most  far-reaching  in  its  importance.  It  is 
the  abolition  of  seasonable  unemployment  by  regula- 
tion of  industry.  With  system  and  foresight  steady 
work  can  be  secured  for  labor  in  many  industries  that 
have  hitherto  constantly  passed  from  seasons  of 
overwork  to  periods  of  unemployment. 

Lastly,  and  least  desirable,  though  its  claims  may 
not  be  overlooked,  there  is  unemployment  insurance, 


24  THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT 

to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  This 
can  be  studied  in  its  many  European  appHcations,  in 
the  Ghent  plan  and  in  Great  Britain.  It  has  the  ap- 
proval of  the  International  Labor  Conference  and 
of  the  American  Bishops  in  their  "Social  Recon- 
struction" program.  The  need  of  it  is  a  sign  of 
social  maladjustment.  Contributions  from  the  State 
should  in  any  case  be  reduced  to  a  minimum  and  the 
unemployment  fund  raised  by  just  methods  for  each 
industry.  Workers  whose  wages  are  inadequate 
should  never  be  taxed  for  any  social  insurance, 
which  should  fall  mainly,  if  that  were  possible,  upon 
those  who  fail  to  remunerate  their  workers  suffi- 
ciently or  cause  the  evils  in  question. 

But  labor,  too,  must  do  its  part,  and  not  hesitate 
to  accept  reductions  in  wages  which  are  required  to 
make  an  energetic  production  possible.  Extravagant 
wages  and  extravagant  union  demands  must  no  less 
surely  be  counted  among  the  causes  of  unemploy- 
ment than  the  greed  of  selfish  employers  who  wil- 
fully hamper  production  to  maintain  their  excessive 
prices.  If  labor  is  to  make  sacrifices  it  has  a  right, 
however,  to  demand  that  employers  lead  the  way. 

Nothing  can  be  more  important  for  the  whole 
country  than  the  solution  of  the  unemployment  prob- 
lem.     "Employment,"    as    the    Portland     Oregon 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT  25 

Journal  says,  "is  the  starting  point  in  the  everlasting 
circle  that  makes  prosperity."  For  employment,  as 
the  writer  correctly  argues,  "means  buying  power, 
buying  power  means  consumption,  consumption 
means  production,  and  production  in  turn  means  em- 
ployment."   So  the  circle  closes  on  itself. 


26 

Second  Chapter 
Christian  Unionism  or  Red  Radicalism 

Labor  Organizations 

Organization  is  the  watchword  of  the  economic 
world.  Capital  is  organized  into  mighty  trusts,  cor- 
porations and  employers'  associations.  Labor,  too, 
is  drawing  over  all  the  earth  its  intricate  web  of 
trade  unions,  labor  parties,  Soviets,  syndicates  and 
internationals  of  every  hue  and  color.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  Church,  with  her  divinely  inspired 
wisdom,  with  her  experience  of  twenty  centuries 
and  with  her  supreme  success  in  the  field  of  labor 
organization,  to  point  the  way  to  true  Christian 
progress  in  this  most  important  work.  Hers  alone 
is  the  glory  of  having  made  possible  the  greatest  of 
all  labor  organizations  of  history,  the  gilds  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

The  Church  recognizes  that  without  organization 
there  can  be  no  hope  for  labor.  Industrial  forces, 
unchecked  by  labor  unionism,  will  tend  steadily  to 
degrade  the  position  of  the  worker.  Hence,  re- 
ferring to  labor's  right  to  organize  the  American 
Bishops  say:  "It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  right  will 
never  again  be  called  in  question  by  any  considerable 
number  of  employers"  (p.  19).  But  not  every 
form  of  labor  unionism  can  lay  claim  to  the  support 


THE  CATHOLIC  TRADITIONS  27 

of  the  Church.  No  organization,  whether  of  em- 
ployers or  labor,  devoid  of  true  Christian  ideals  can 
ever  hope  to  meet  with  her  approval. 

/.  The  Catholic  Traditions* 
The  economic  chaos  which  followed  upon  the 
Reformation  is  ascribed  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  to  two 
causes :  the  destruction  of  the  gilds  and  the  separa- 
tion of  religion  from  industrial  life  through  the  loss 
of  the  ancient  Faith. 

The  craft  gilds  were  the  medieval  trade  unions. 
In  fostering  them  the  Church  showed  her  profound 
and  practical  interest  in  labor  unionism.  That 
interest  has  not  been  lessened  in  our  day,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  Christian  labor  unions  founded  by 
Bishop  Ketteler  and  destroyed  by  the  tyranny  of 
Bismarck;  from  the  brilliant  encyclicals  of  Leo 
XIII.,  confirmed  anew  by  his  successors;  and  from 
the  countless  other  social  documents  by  the  great 
prelates  of  the  Church,  or  the  joint  national  pastorals 
of  large  bodies  of  the  Catholic  episcopate,  no  less 
than  from  the  positive  work  accomplished  by 
Catholics  in  many  countries. 

Labor  organization  was  not  merely  promoted  and 
fostered  by  the  Church,   but  reached  its  highest 

♦Consult :  "The  World  Problem."  pp.  171-176;  "Demo- 
cratic Industry,"  chapters  XVIII-XX. 


28 


THE  CATHOLIC  TRADITIONS 


development  under  her  care.  Today  it  can  do  no 
better  than  to  follow  her  prudent,  enlightened  and 
sympathetic  counsel.  Her  traditions  are  to  be 
copied  not  according  to  the  letter,  but  according  to 
the  spirit,  as  she  definitely  states  when  she  sets  be- 
fore us  the  craft  gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

These  organizations  firmly  guarded  with  equal 
care  the  interests  of  the  craftsman  and  the  con- 
sumer, so  long  as  her  own  spirit  freely  inspired 
them.  They  provided  for  just  weight,  fair  measure, 
moderate  prices,  while  securing  for  the  producer  a 
remuneration  that  was  neither  inadequate  nor 
excessive.  Their  first  aim,  in  brief,  was  that  com- 
mon good  which  is  so  generally  disregarded  by 
modern  organizations,  whether  of  capital  or  labor. 
To  secure  this'  they  were  empowered  to  hold  their 
own  courts  to  punish  delinquencies  in  industrial 
matters.  Yet  they  were  strictly  subject  to  their 
proper  and  lawful  authorities,  municipal  or  national, 
from  whom  their  powers  were  all  derived  and  by 
whom  their  statutes  were  approved.  They  steadily 
grew  in  perfection  with  the  growing  influence  of 
the  Church,  and  lost  their  prestige  only  in  propor- 
tion as  they  neglected  her  guidance.  Under  the 
Reformation  they  at  once  became  economically 
impotent,  though  still  continuing  in  a  languishing 


CHRISTIAN   IDEALS  OR  MARXISM  29 

life,  exploited  by  royalty  or  by  the  latest  court 
favorites. 

//.    Christian  Ideals  or  Marxism* 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  labor  unions,  today  as  in  the 
day  of  the  medieval  gilds,  to  provide  not  for  their 
own  interests  exclusively,  but  to  see  that  the  public 
good  is  supremely  guarded  in  all  their  activities. 
The  latter  become  unlawful  when  they  exceed  the 
limits  set  by  social  justice  or  by  Christian  charity. 
All  attempts  to  extort  still  more  favorable  conditions 
than  these  allow,  whether  in  shorter  hours,  higher 
wages,  or  extravagant  demands  upon  employers  or 
the  long-suffering  public,  should  be  combatted  at 
once,  as  no  less  reprehensible  than  the  tyranny  of 
an  oppressive  capitalism. 

Unjust  restriction  of  output,  abnormally  short 
hours  or  "loafing  on  the  job"  is  ruinous  to  the  best 
interests  of  labor  and  the  public.  The  demand  for 
excessive  wages  is  destructive  of  industry  and  the 
common  good.  The  profiteering  of  capital  does  not 
justify  the  profiteering  of  labor,  but  all  must  unite 
to  combat  every  form  of  this  evil  wherever  it  may 
manifest  itself. 

The  closed  shop,  a  common  institution  of  Catholic 

♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  Chapter  X,  and  pp.  176- 
178;  "Democratic  Industry,"  pp.  325-327. 


30  CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OR  MARXISM 

times,  if  rightly  understood,  is  not  in  itself  to  be 
condemned.  It  can  easily,  however,  become  unjust 
or  opposed  to  charity,  as  when  access-  to  the  union 
is  made  difficult,  so  that  there  is  both  a  closed  shop 
and  a  closed  union;  when  the  union  itself  is  repre- 
hensible because  of  false  radicalism;  when  the 
common  good  is  disregarded  in  the  end&  pursued 
by  it  or  the  methods  employed ;  or  when  the  incon- 
venience caused  is  out  of  proportion  to  the  good 
accomplished.  Hence  we  find  some  of  the  best 
friends  of  labor  firmly  opposed  to  the  idea  of  seek- 
ing to  enforce  a  closed  shop,  even  as  they  are 
opposed  to  the  "open  shop"  of  the  employer  when 
this  means  in  reality  a  shop  closed  to  union  labor. 
Dr.  Ryan,  whose  interest  in  labor  unionism  no  one 
can  reasonably  question,  thus  states  the  case : 

"As  a  general  rule,  workers  ought  not  to  be 
coerced  into  joining  the  union  through  contracts  by 
which  the  employer  agrees  to  employ  only  union 
members.  It  is  better  that  they  should  be  brought 
into  the  organization  by  methods  of  education  and 
persuasion.  And  the  employer  who  is  willing  to 
deal  with  the  union,  to  establish  union  conditions  of 
employment,  and  to  permit  unionization  by  persua- 
sion, ought  not  to  be  asked  or  required  to  sign  a 
contract  for  the  closed  shop.    In  such  a  case  the  open 


CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OR  MARXISM  31 

shop  is  a  fair  and  reasonable  institution."     ("Social 
liecunstruction,"  p.  131.) 

The  conditions  of  the  Middle  Ages  no  longer  ex- 
ist which  then  made  of  the  closed  shop  an  institution 
authorized  by  public  authority  and  approved  or  even 
demanded  by  the  community — so  long  as  the  gilds 
themselves  had  not  degenerated  into  selfish  institu- 
tions, placing  their  group  interests  above  those  of 
the  general  welfare. 

It  was  the  rule  of  medieval  gilds  that  all  laborers 
who  wished  to  practise  their  trade,  as  master  crafts- 
men, must  belong  to  their  respective  craft  gilds. 
But  the  first  purpose  of  these  gilds,  as  has  been 
stated,  was  to  ensure  for  all  men  a  fair  remunera- 
tion, reasonable  prices,  honest  workmanship,  full 
measure  and  perfect  quality  of  goods — in  a  word,  to 
seek,  not  the  selfish  interests  of  their  members  by 
the  shortest  hours  and  the  highest  wages,  but  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  the  entire  community,  and 
so  also  to  serve  their  own  interests  in  the  best,  and 
wisest,  as  well  as  in  the  most  Christian  way.  With 
such  a  purpose  in  view,  it  was  the  wish  of  the 
community  itself  that  every  master  workman  should 
belong  to  his  own  craft  gild,  thus  to  safeguard  the 
public  prosperity  of  their  town. 

Opposed    to    all    these    Christian    ideals    is    the 


32 


CHRISTIAN  IDEALS  OR  MARXISM 


modern  Red  radicalism.  The  excesses  of  which 
false  labor  unionism  is  capable  can  be  seen  from 
the  revolutionary  agitation  of  Socialism,  the  Syn- 
dicalist plans  of  the  general  strike,  the  sabotage  of 
the  I.  W.  W.  and  the  Bolshevist  regime  of  rape, 
murder  and  expropriation,  which  has  now  become 
part  of  history.  Reckless  confiscation  of  private 
productive  property  was  the  ultimate  dream  of  the 
men  who  organized  such  movements. 

Need  we  wonder  that  labor  unionism,  where  it 
avoids  these  excesses,  should  still  seek  its  own 
advantages  regardless  of  others,  unless  it  is 
strongly  influenced  by  religious  principles?  God- 
less labor  unionism  can  be  no  better  than  godless 
capitalism.  There  is  no  choice  between  the  two. 
Each  will  extort  from  others  all  that  it  safely  can. 
Christianity  is  the  one  great  need  of  modem  labor 
as  of  modern  capital. 

Yet  even  Red  radicalism  has  performed  at  least 
one  service  for  mankind.  It  has  helped  to  awaken 
the  conscience  of  the  world.  Men  who  would  not 
listen  to  the  voice  of  the  Church  have  been  roused 
by  the  menace  of  revolution  at  their  own  doors.  In 
many  instances,  unfortunately,  the  awakening  has 
come  too  late. 


CATHOLIC   LABOR    UNIONISTS  33 

///.  Catholic  Labor  Unionists'^ 
In  a  Catholic  country  the  correct  labor  union  will 
be  one  in  which,  as  in  the  medieval  gilds,  the 
Catholic  religion  and  economic  interests  go  hand  in 
hand.  The  purpose  of  labor  unions,  as  Pope  Leo 
XIII.  wrote,  is'  to  enable  each  individual  member 
"to  better  his  condition  to  the  utmost,  in  body, 
mind  and  property."  But,  he  takes  care  to  add 
immediately :  "It  is  clear  that  they  must  pay  special 
attention  to  the  duties  of  religion  and  morality,  and 
that  their  internal  discipline  must  be  guided  very 

strictly  by  these  weighty  considerations 

What  advantage  can  it  be  to  a  workingman  to 
obtain  by  means  of  a  society  all  that  he  requires 
and  to  endanger  his  soul  for  lack  of  spiritual  food? 
'What  doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  own  soul  ?' " 

Organization  of  distinct  Catholic,  or  at  least 
Christian  labor  unions,  as  the  case  might  be,  was 
therefore  recognized  as  a  strict  necessity  also  in 
various  non-Catholic  countries  when  the  official 
labor  movement  became  Socialistic.  Hence  the 
flourishing  associations  of  this  nature  that  arose  in 
many  European  lands. 

Where    Catholic   or    Christian    unions  are  not 


♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  179,  181-184. 


34  CATHOLIC   LABOR   UNIONISTS 

feasible,  and  the  existing  labor  unions  remain 
purely  neutral,  it  becomes  at  least  the  duty  of  the 
Catholic  trade  unionist  to  acquaint  himself  thor- 
oughly with  his  Catholic  social  principles,  as  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  Church  to  aid  him  in  his  task  by 
literature,  social  courses  and  social  instruction. 
Catholic  organizations  for  this  particular  purpose,  to 
which  every  trade  unionist  is  to  belong,  were  par- 
ticularly insisted  upon  by  Pope  Pius  X. 

It  is  further  the  duty  of  every  Catholic  trade 
unionist,  in  purely  neutral  unions,  regularly  to 
attend  his  union  meetings,  that  he  may  help  to 
defeat  the  measures  of  extreme  radicalism,  whose 
advocates  are  ever  watchful  and  aggressive,  and 
may  bravely  champion  the  true  interests  of  labor,  in 
full  conformity  with  social  justice  and  Christian 
charity. 

If  such  action  is  not  taken,  labor  unionism  will 
everywhere  find  itself  chained  to  the  chariot  wheels 
of  a  triumphant  Socialism.  The  reason  will  not  be 
because  workingmen  desire  Socialism,  but  because  a 
mere  handful  of  Socialists  have  been  more  active 
in  their  cause  of  destruction,  moral  and  industrial, 
than  thousands  of  Christian  workingmen  in  the 
cause  of  true  social  progress,  with  no  constructive 
ideals  placed  before  them. 


CATHOLIC  LABOR   UNIONISTS  35 

Merely  to  combat  Socialism,  to  point  out  the  dis- 
illusionment, false  radicalism,  misery,  despair  and 
ultimate  slavery  to  which  it  leads,  is  not  sufficient. 
Men  must  be  taught  and  encouraged  to  destroy,  or 
at  least  lessen,  the  real  causes  of  Socialism  and 
social  discontent,  and  to  apply  the  Christian 
remedies.  Of  these  we  shall  come  to  speak  in  their 
proper  place. 


36 

Third  Chapter 
Jungle  War  or  Christian  Peace 

The  Class  Struggle 

"After  the  World  War  the  Class  War!"  Such 
was  the  Socialist  slogan  when  the  nations  were  still 
engaged  in.  the  most  sanguinary  and  momentous 
struggle  of  all  history.  Hardly  had  this  war  ceased 
when  the  other  broke  loose  in  all  its  full  intensity. 
In  place  of  a  larger  freedom  and  a  truer  brotherhood 
of  man,  for  which  the  world  had  hoped,  the  old 
class  rule  was  but  replaced  by  the  new,  the  autocracy 
of  wealth  by  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat.  The 
new  order,  Marx  had  told  his  followers,  must  be 
ushered  in  with  violence  and  blood.  However 
exaggerated  the  first  reports  doubtless  were,  loot 
and  lust  marked  the  Bolshevist  triumph  in  Russia. 
Plunder  and  mad  excesses  summed  up  the  prole- 
tarian reign  in  stricken  Hungary.  Spartacan  re- 
volts and  machine-gun  battles  in  the  streets  o3 
Berlin  threatened  the  very  life  of  the  new  Republic 
which  had  risen  out  of  the  disasters  of  the  war. 

Now  as  then,  Socialism  is  using  every  opportunity 
to  foment  the  universal  war  of  the  masses  against 
the  classes,  which  was  first  declared  as  the  Socialist 
ultimatum,  in  "The  Communist  Manifesto,"  penned 
by  Marx  and  Engels.    Socialism  assumes  countless 


THEORY  OF  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE  37 

outward   forms   and   passes   under  many   different 
names,  but  is  always  the  same  at  heart. 

/.  Theory  of  the  Class  Struggle* 
The  doctrine  of  the  class  struggle  is  one  of  the 
most  fundamental  of  Socialist  teachings.  It  holds 
that  the  history  of  the  world  has,  in  the  main,  been 
nothing  mOre  than  a  series  of  economic  struggles, 
whose  successive  stages  have  been  slavery,  serfdom 
and  the  wage  system.  Under  each  of  these  labor 
was  variously  exploited  by  the  possessing  classes. 
This  struggle,  we  are  told,  must  continue  until, 
under  Socialism,  all  classes  have  finally  ceased  to 
exist. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  this  theory  which  Bol- 
shevism pushed  to  its  extreme  conclusion,  until 
obliged  to  admit  its  failure.  In  practice  the  Com- 
munists themselves  formed  a  most  distinct  class,  a 
Red  aristocracy.  The  one-class  idea,  the  enforce- 
ment of  which  has  always  ultimately  been  sought 
through  violence,  is  not  in  any  way  new.  The  en- 
tire Communist  ideal,  together  with  its  bloody  meth- 
ods, is  clearly  put  by  Shakespeare  upon  the  lips  of 
Jack  Cade  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Hear  the  Bol- 
shevist harangue  as  given  in  the  second   part  of 

♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  8,  104-106;  "Demo- 
cratic Industry,"  pp.  179,  229. 


38  THEORY  OF  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

Henry  VI,  Act  IV,  Scene  2,  by  this  fifteenth-cen- 
tury Trotsky : 

"Be  brave  then,  for  your  captain  is  brave,  and 
vows  reformation.  There  shall  be  in  England,  seven 
halfpenny  loaves  sold  for  a  penny  *  *  *  g^lj  ^\^q 
realm  shall  be  in  common;  *  *  *  there  shall  be 
no  more  money ;  *  *  *  j  ^yju  apparel  them  all 
in  one  livery  that  they  may  agree  like  brothers. 

"Now  show  yourselves  men;  'tis  for  liberty.  We 
will  not  leave  one  lord,  one  gentleman.  Spare  none 
but  such  as  go  in  clouted  shoon.     *     *     * 

"And  henceforth  all  things  shall  be  in  common/' 

What  is  the  Catholic  view?  The  Church  ac- 
knowledges the  inhumanity  of  man  to  man,  of 
which  history  so  clearly  bears  witness.  What  is 
more,  she  alone  successfully  remedied  this,  if  we 
prescind  from  the  salutary  social  results  of  religion 
in  the  Old  Testament.  The  oppression  of  labor 
under  paganism  she  relieved,  not  by  futile  efforts  at 
revolution  or  new  class  tyrannies,  but  by  the 
changes  she  wrought  in  the  hearts  of  men  through 
the  doctrines  of  Christ.  So  finally  she  struck  the 
shackles  from  the  slave,  gave  liberty  to  the  serf  in 
the  free  cities  of  Christendom,  and,  during  the  period 
when  gild  life  reached  its  highest  development, 
established  the  most  ideal  economic  conditions  that 


THE   RIGHT  TO  STRIKE  39 

history  records.  The  struggle  of  classes,  in  the 
Socialist  sense,  was  then  unknown.  The  disputes 
of  the  early  gild  days,  as  Brentano  correctly  says, 
were  like  family  disputes  between  parents  and 
children. 

Socialism  disclaims  to  have  created  the  class 
struggle.  This  we  shall  not  dispute.  But  it  has 
done  all  in  its  power  to  foment  class  hatred. 

The  class  struggle  is  but  the  expression  of  that 
paganism  in  economic  life  into  which  Socialism 
would  plunge  the  world  still  more  deeply,  since  its 
efforts  everywhere  have  been  directed  against  re- 
ligion and  the  Church.  There  is  no  need  of  a 
destruction  of  classes,  whose  existence  is  founded 
on  nature  itself,  but  of  a  Christian  regulation  of 
their  mutual  relations  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
of  nature  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Such  is  the 
teaching  of  the  Church.  Once  more  to  bring  about 
this  harmony,  as  it  existed  under  Catholic  influence 
in  the  best  days  of  the  gilds,  is  now  the  duty  of 
Christian  Democracy. 

//.     The  Right  to  Strike* 

The    Church    does    not    condemn    the    rightful 

struggles  of  labor.     Neither,  however,  can  she  in- 

♦Consult:      "The    World    Problem,"    chapters    XI,    XII; 
"Democratic  Industry,"  pp.  325,  326. 


40  THE  RIGHT   TO   STRIKE 

discriminately  endorse  "the  right  to  strike"  under 
all  conditions,  no  matter  who  may  ruffer  the  conse- 
quences, or  what  these  consequences  may  be.  She 
deplores  strikes  and  labor  troubles;  yet  she  upholds 
the  striking  laborer  in  his  right  to  use  this  weapon 
of  economic  war  when  all  conditions  are  fulfilled 
that  make  his  cause  legitimate.  In  the  same  way 
she  stands  prepared  to  acknowledge  the  just  con- 
tentions of  the  employer.  She  was  founded  for  no 
single  class  exclusively,  and  her  interests  are  wide 
as  mankind. 

While  defending  in  the  abstract  the  right  to  strike 
we  must  not  forget  the  seriousness  of  the  many  un- 
justified strikes,  as  well  as  lockouts.  The  exagger- 
ated demands  of  one  group  of  men,  perhaps  rel- 
atively very  small,  may  enprmously  highten  the 
price  of  certain  important  commodities  for  the  en- 
tire community,  and  even  imply  serious  sufferings 
and  death  itself.  According  to  the  United  States 
Department  of  Labor  Review,  out  of  the  3,950,000 
workers  who  struck  in  this  country  in  19 19  no  fewer 
than  1,052,256  had  reasons  which  labor  officials 
themselves  could  not  recognize,  or  which  they  open- 
ly condemned  as  unwarranted.  (Vol.  X,  No.  6, 
pp.  199-207.    "The  High  Cost  of  Strikes,"  p.  93.) 

Irresponsible  labor  leaders  are  willing,  in  favor- 


THE  RIGHT  TO  STRIKE  41 

able  times,  to  keep  their  ascendancy  through  con- 
stant agitation,  seeking  to  hold  their  memberships 
in  line  to  strike  for  continued  increases  in  wages. 
The  injustice  perpetrated  upon  employers  or  the 
public  is  of  no  consideration  to  them,  nor  the  amount 
of  the  wages  already  attained.  They  are  the  an- 
archists of  the  labor  unions,  as  the  profiteers  are 
anarchists  of  capitalism.  Catholic  labor  unionists 
should  shake  themselves  free  of  such  leadership. 
Yet  these  abuses  must  not  therefore  make  us  con- 
demn the  entirely  licit  weapon  of  the  strike  when  it 
is  justly  and  rightly  used. 

To  present  a  concise  statement  of  the  principles 
regarding  the  use  of  the  various  forms  of  industrial 
warfare — the  strike,  the  lockout,  the  sympathetic 
strike  and  the  blacklist — it  will  suffice  to  quote  here 
clauses  32  and  33  of  "A  Catholic  Social  Platform," 
with  which  the  writer  closes  his  volume  on  "Demo- 
cratic Industry" : 

22 — Strikes  are  permitted  for  a  grave  and  just 
cause,  when  there  is  hope  of  success  and  no  other 
satisfactory  solution  can  be  found,  when  justice  and 
charity  are  preserved,  and  the  rights  of  the  public 
respected.  Yet  conciliation,  arbitration  and  trade 
agreements  are  the  usual  means  to  be  suggested  in 
their  stead.    Hence  the  utility  of  public  boards  for 


42  THE  RIGHT  TO  STRIKE 

this  purpose.  As  in  the  strike,  so  in  the  lockout,  a 
serious  and  just  cause  is  required,  and  the  rights  of 
the  worker  and  of  the  public  must  be  respected. 
Charity  is  far  more  readily  violated  in  the  lockout 
than  in  the  strike,  because  of  the  greater  suffering 
likely  to  be  inflicted  on  the  laborer  deprived  of  his 
work  than  on  the  employer. 

33 — Justification  of  the  sympathetic  strike  will 
rarely  be  found,  while  the  presumption  is  over- 
whelmingly against  the  general  sympathetic  strike. 
Blacklists  on  the  part  of  employers  that  perma- 
nently exclude  from  his  trade  a  worker  displeasing 
to  them,  who  honestly  seeks  employment,  are 
opposed  to  the  first  principles  of  justice. 

The  supreme  weapon  of  Red  syndicalism  and  its 
spawn,  the  I.  W.  W.,  is  the  general  strike.  This 
also  is  the  purpose  of  the  "one  big  union."  Social- 
ism never  fails  in  practice  to  support  this  measure, 
where  it  is  not  directed  against  a  Socialist  govern- 
ment. By  a  single  order  syndicalists  would  palsy 
all  the  country's  industries,  and  clog  the  veins  of 
trade  and  commerce,  thus  forcing  capital  to  sur- 
render. They  would  then  take  over  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution  without  any  compensa- 
tion, and  own  and  operate  them  through  the  workers 
in   each   industry.     A   similar   end    was   achieved 


CHRISTIAN'  PEACE  43 

through  more  violent  methods  by  the  Bolshevists  in 
Russia  and  is  planned  by  their  followers  throughout 
the  world.  Yet  Bolshevism  received  the  enthus- 
iastic support  of  the  Socialist  press  at  the  very 
moment  when  it  was  looting  the  banks  and  robbing 
the  possessors  of  private  as  well  as  of  productive 
property.  The  reason  is  plain.  It  was  true  to  the 
supreme  Marxian  edict:  "Expropriate  the  expro- 
priators." All  capital  was  interpreted  as  the  ex- 
propriated goods  of  the  worker,  and  private  wealth 
was  viewed  in  no  other  light. 

Quite  different  is  the  excellent  Christian  gild 
idea  of  individual  ownership  and  cooperative  con- 
trol by  the  workers,  of  such  enterprises  as  they  can 
rightfully  establish.  This  plan,  so  strongly  advo- 
cated by  the  American  Bishops,  is  vitiated  under 
Red  radicalism  by  the  initial  act  of  robbery,  and 
ruined  by  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  destruction  of 
individual  rights,  the  abolition  of  religion  and  the 
substitution  of  a  new  and  worse  slavery  for  the 
Czarism  or  autocracy  of  wealth.  Not  this  way  lies 
the  path  to  liberty  and  true  democracy. 

///.    Christian  Peace^ 
While  the  Church  acknowledges  the  lawfulness 


^Consult:   "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  5,  7,  107-110,  117-122; 
•'Democratic  Industrj',"  pp.  204,  205. 


44 


CHRISTIA'N'  PEACE 


of  Strikes,  when  the  conditions  required  actually 
exist,  yet  she  insistently  demands  that  the  circum- 
stances whence  these  troubles  arise  should  be  re- 
moved so  far  as  possible,  and  that  all  necessary 
provisions  for  a  peaceful  no  less  than  a  just  settle- 
ment of  labor  disputes  be  taken.  Hence,  in  the 
first  place,  the  need  of  promoting-  legislation  that 
will  efifectually  help  to  remove  all  causes  of  well- 
founded  discontent  on  the  part  of  the  laboring 
classes;  hence,  secondly,  the  need  of  public  boards 
of  arbitration ;  hence,  thirdly,  the  need,  on  the  part 
of  capital  and  labor,  of  seeking  ways  of  trade  agree- 
ment and  conciliation;  and  hence,  finally,  the  im- 
perative necessity  of  insisting  that  each  party  keep 
inviolate  its  pledged  word. 

Both  capital  and  labor  have  greatly  sinned  in  this 
last  regard.  If  good  faith  is  destroyed,  if  agree- 
ments are  ruthlessly  broken,  as  has  happened  in  the 
declaration  of  many  a  strike  by  labor,  and  the 
violation  of  many  a  pact  by  capital,  then  all  hope 
of  concord  and  conciliation  is  at  an  end.  Peace  is 
then  but  the  truce  of  the  jungle  when  each  waits  for 
the  opportunity  to  fall  upon  the  other  at  the  best 
advantage.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  see  that 
agreements  are  faithfully  kept  and  violations  of 
them  are  promptly  and  effectively  punished.   One  of 


CHRISTIAN'  PEACE  45 

the  war  cries  of  Red  radicalism  is  that  pledges 
should  not  be  made  or,  if  made,  must  not  be  kept. 

A  special  source  of  labor  discontent,  and  an 
incentive  to  inordinate  demands  on  labor's  own 
part,  are  the  enormous  profits  of  individual  capi- 
talists, not  seldom  obtained  by  unconscionable  prof- 
iteering, by  immoral  business  methods,  or  by  open 
robbery  of  the  public. 

Equally  exasperating  to  labor,  and  productive  of 
Socialism  and  anarchism  within  its  ranks,  is  the 
false  use  made  of  enormous  fortunes,  whether 
justly  or  unjustly  acquired.  A  return  to  Christian 
ideals  of  living  and  Christian  principles  of  steward- 
ship is  necessary,  first  and  foremost,  for  the  solution 
of  the  social  problem.  Without  this  there  can  be 
no  hope  for  a  true  social  readjustment. 

Finally,  universal  peace  is  possible  upon  no  other 
basis  than  the  acceptance  of  the  Church's  teachings 
on  social  justice  and  Christian  charity  by  both 
capital  and  labor.  The  latter  is  not  justified  in 
striking  simply  for  "all  it  can  get,"  nor  is  the  former 
permitted  to  restrict  wages  and  favorable  conditions 
of  emplo}Tnent  purely  to  what  labor  can  exact 
through  strikes  and  intimidations.  A  peace  upon 
such  terms  is  but  a  lull  before  the  storm.  Christ 
alone  can  still  the  wrestling  elements  and  bid  the 


46  ARBITRATION    AND    CONCILIATION 

class  war  cease,  if  men  will  but  accept  His  word. 

IV.  Arbitration  and  Conciliation* 
In  the  meantime  arbitration,  as  we  said,  should 
as  far  as  possible  prevent  future  strikes  and  lockouts. 
But  this  is  not  to  be  understood  in  the  sense  of  a 
compulsory  act  by  whose  decision  both  parties  are 
bound  to  abide.  Such  arbitration  has  failed  woeful- 
ly where  it  was  applied  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  in  Australia  and  introduced  by  the 
labor  party  itself. 

The  system  to  be  adopted  is  rather  one  similar  to 
that  for  a  long  time  employed  in  Canada.  It  con- 
sists in  the  application  of  the  principle  of  investiga- 
tion previous  to  any  strike  or  lockout,  and  so  seeks 
amicably  and  reasonably  to  adjust  industrial  differ- 
ences, without  taking  away  from  either  party  the 
right  of  strike  or  lockout  if  they  fail  to  abide  by 
the  decision  made.  In  the  words  of  Sir  George 
Askwith : 

"It  legalizes  the  community's  right  to  intervene  in 
a  trade  dispute  by  enacting  that  a  stoppage,  either 
by  strike  or  lockout,  shall  not  take  place  until  the 
community,  through  a  governmental  department,  has 
investigated  the  difference  with  the  object  of  as- 
certaining if  a  recommendation  cannot  be  made  to 
*Consult:  "The  World  Problem,"  pp.  117-122. 


ARBITRATION    AND    CONCILIATION  47 

the  parties  which  both  can  accept  as  a  settlement 
of  the  difference." 

The  possibihties  of  settlement  by  discussion  and 
negotiation  are  thus  exhausted  before  a  stoppage  of 
work  is  permitted.  Even  when  the  recommenda- 
tions thus  made  are  not  accepted  they  form  a  basis 
on  which  a  future  settlement  can  be  reached.  They 
can  also  powerfully  help  rightly  and  intelligently 
to  direct  public  opinion,  which  may  prove  a  mighty 
factor  in  the  final  settlement.  Referring  to  this 
measure  in  his  book  on  "The  Morality  of  the  Strike" 
and  quoting  at  greater  length  from  the  report  of  Sir 
George  Askwith,  Father  McLean  concludes: 

"The  effectiveness  of  the  Canadian  method  as 
compared  with  the  Compulsory  Arbitration  law  of 
Australia  is  quite  apparent.  During  the  years  1914- 
18  the  total  number  of  strikes  in  Canada  has  been 
506 — scarcely  one- fourth  the  number  which  occurred 
in  the  same  period  in  Australia,  where  illegal  strikes 
numbered  1,945.  The  effectiveness  of  the  measure 
of  settling  the  industrial  disputes  is  seen  from  the 
fact  that,  although  the  decisions  are  not  obligatory, 
yet  during  the  period  from  March  22,  1907,  to 
March  31,  19 19,  it  failed  to  avert  strikes  in  only 
twenty-two  of  the  disputes  that  came  within  the 
scope  of  the  Act."     (Pp.  165,   166.) 


48 


Fourth  Chapter 
Woman  at  the  Wheel  of  Industry 

The  Woman  Laborer 

No  purely  human  institution  can  ever  be  con- 
cerned so  profoundly  for  the  welfare  of  woman  as 
is  the  Church  of  God.  Nowhere  can  woman  be  so 
.greatly  honored  as  where  devotion  to  Mary  Im- 
maculate has  called  forth  in  the  hearts  of  men  a 
new  reverence  for  womankind.  Nowhere  can  there 
ever  be  presented  to  woman  herself  an  ideal  so 
perfect  as  the  Catholic  conception  of  the  Mother  of 
God. 

But  it  is  especially  to  the  woman  acquainted  with 
the  hardships  of  daily  toil  that  the  Church  can  offer 
her  tenderest  help  and  happiest  consolation.  Was 
not  Mary  herself  the  lowly  bride  of  the  humble 
carpenter  of  Nazareth?  Were  not  her  hands,  like 
those  of  Joseph  and  of  Jesus,  inured  to  labor  from 
her  youth?  Near  then  to  her,  and  dear  to  the 
Church,  that  mystic  Spouse  of  Christ,  is  the  woman 
worker,  whether  her  lot  be  cast  in  office,  shop  or  in 
domestic  service.  Her  livery  of  patient  duty  is  the 
same  as  that  which  Christ  had  worn.  Honorable 
is  woman's  work,  whether  it  be  that  of  faithful 
motherhood  or  of  daily  labor  in  the  world's  great 
mart. 


woman's  ideal  place  49 

/.    Woman's  Ideal  Place* 

Labor  is  the  lot  of  man:  "In  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  But  woman  was  not 
made  for  idleness.  Riches  can  merely  impose  upon 
her  a  greater  responsibility  and  open  to  her  a  large 
sphere  of  usefulness.  They  cannot  in  the  least 
excuse  her  from  earnest  and  daily  service.  The 
woman  parasite  who  lives  for  fashion,  luxury  and 
pleasure,  be  she  ever  so  wealthy  and  refined  in 
worldly  culture,  is  a  menace  to  society.  Immeas- 
urably above  her,  in  the  scale  of  human  worth  as  of 
heavenly  grace,  stands  the  poor  struggling  working 
girl,  who  combats  poverty  and  vice  by  fidelity  to 
her  lowly  duties,  and  with  the  love  of  God  gilds  all 
her  work. 

But  if  the  Qiurch  acknowledges  the  economic 
necessity  that  often  drives  woman  into  industry,  she 
no  less  clearly  insists  that  this  is  not  her  ideal  place. 
"Woman,"  says  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  "is  by  nature  fitted 
for  home-work,  and  it  is  that  which  is  best  adapted 
to  preserve  her  modesty  and  promote  the  good  up- 
bringing of  children  and  the  well-being  of  the 
family." 

Our  first  Christian  duty,  therefore,  in  the  social 
sphere,  is  to  make  provision  that  will  enable  the 
♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  chapter  xxii. 


50  woman's  ideal  place 

mother  of  the  family  to  perform  her  needed  functions 
in  the  home.  This  is  possible  only  by  assuring  to 
the  father  of  the  family  the  full  family  wage.  But 
husband  and  wife,  too,  must  co-operate  towards  this 
end  by  thrift  and  moderation.  There  is  a  wasteful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  in  our 
day,  which  must  be  remedied  by  a  Christian  re- 
formation of  the  individual  before  we  can  reason- 
ably hope  to  reform  society  at  large. 

The  plea  that  woman  must  find  occupation  in 
industry  because  she  can  no  longer  find  it  in  the 
home  is  a  specious  argument  of  the  modern 
paganism.  The  true  Catholic  mother  knows  that 
her  tasks  are  all-engrossing,  and  that  the  day  seems 
but  too  short  to  fulfil  them  properly.  Delightful  as 
love  may  make  her  duties,  they  are  tiring,  none  the 
less,  and  often  exhaust  all  her  youthful  energies. 

Nothing  can  be  more  senseless  than  the  cry  of 
idle  hands,  raised  by  society  dames.  A  thousand 
services  of  Christian  charity  and  education  are 
clamoring  for  all  the  strength  that  woman  may 
have  to  spare  from  her  household  duties.  The  pro- 
motion of  social  justice,  too,  lies  within  her  power. 
It  is  our  sacred  task,  through  organization,  litera- 
ture and  instruction,  to  point  out  and  open  up  to 
her  the  countless  channels  of  social  helpfulness,  ^id 


WOMAN  IN  THE  LABOR  WORLD  51 

SO  to  Utilize  to  the  full  her  great  possibilities  for 
good  in  society  no  less  than  in  the  home.  But  first 
and  foremost,  for  wife  and  mother,  are  her  function 
in  her  own  domestic  circle  with  which  no  others 
must  be  permitted  to  enter  into  conflict  or  rivalry. 

//.     Woman  in  the  Labor  World* 

Yet,  with  all  that  we  have  said,  the  fact  remains 
that  a  vast  number  of  women  are  obliged,  for  a 
time  at  least,  to  find  occupation  and  seek  their  liveli- 
hood elsewhere  than  in  the  home.  It  is  with  these 
that  we  are  here  concerned.  Fully  admitting  such 
conditions,  our  duty  is  none  the  less  to  combat  the 
philosophy  of  Socialism  and  the  false  feminism, 
which  would  insist  that  this  is  woman's  normal 
sphere,  and  that  she  must  everywhere  take  her 
place  by  the  side  of  man  in  the  outer  world  of 
production  and  distribution.  It  is  all  part  of  the 
diabolical  design  to  destroy  the  Christian  home  and 
to  hold  up  its  pure  ideals  to  scorn  and  obloquy. 
Complete  economic  independence  is  postulated  for 
every  woman  to  abolish  the  headship  of  the  father 
of  the  family,  and  to  make  marriage  dissoluble  at 
a  mere  whim.  Such  is  the  ultimate  purpose  in 
view. 


♦Consult :     "The  World  Problem,"  chapter  xxiii ;  "Demo- 
cratic Industry,"  pp.  215-218. 


52  WOMAN  IN  THE  LABOR  WORLD 

Whatever  agitators  may  proclaim,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  married  women  will  gladly  escape  the 
outer  industrial  life  to  center  their  attention  as  well 
as  their  affection  upon  the  home,  whose  happiness 
and  success  must  mainly  depend  upon  them.  They 
are  not  wrong  in  believing  that  they  are  doing  one 
of  the  world's  most  precious,  great  and  noble  works. 
Yet  it  is  equally  true  that  the  vast  majority  of  un- 
married women  must  be  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions outside  of  their  own  domestic  circle.  Hence 
the  woman  laborer  will  still  remain  an  economic 
necessity  of  our  times,  whatever  her  own  private 
wishes  may  be. 

The  woman-labor  problem,  in  its  present  com- 
plexity, is  comparatively  of  modern  date. 

Ancient  paganism  allowed  its  women  of  wealth 
to  corrupt  in  idle  luxury,  while  countless  others  of 
their  sex  were  bound  to  the  torturing  wheel  of 
slavery,  enduring  sufferings  mental,  physical  and 
moral,  while  helping  in  their  own  turn  to  the 
corruption  of  society. 

Modern  commercialism,  begotten  in  post-Refor- 
mation times,  again  dragged  woman  from  her 
rightful  position  to  which  Christianity  had  elevated 
her,  when  "the  sanctity  of  weakness  was  recognized 
as  well  as  the  sanctity  of  sorrow."   It  is  to  capital- 


PROTECTING    THE   WOMAN    WORKER  53 

ism,  in  so  far  only  as  it  dissociated  religion  from 
economics  under  the  new  industrialism,  that  we  here 
refer.  For  this  heartless  Mammon  worship  there 
was  no  sacredness  in  womankind,  in  wifehood  or  in 
holiest  motherhood.  Woman  was  merely  to  supply 
the  cheap  labor  of  the  world ;  she  was  ground  down 
by  inhuman  toil  and  wasted  away  with  endless  hours 
of  work,  while  her  little  ones  were  forced  to  follow 
her  into  the  grimy  factory,  or  slave  by  her  side  at 
the  sweated  tasks  of  the  dismal  attic  room.  Worst 
of  all,  she  was  thus  used  to  depress  still  more  the 
wages  of  the  father  of  the  family.  Long  and  bitter 
was  the  suffering  of  the  woman  laborer,  great  was 
the  injustice  done  to  her. 

///.  Protecting  the  Woman  Worker* 
Woman's  position  of  dignity  in  the  Christian 
home  was  won  for  her  by  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
same  elements  that  led  to  the  rejection  of  the 
Church's  doctrine  also  led  to  the  renewed  degrada- 
tion of  woman.  Liberalism  and  industrialism  were 
but  the  offsprings  of  the  Reformation,  as  is  now 
well  known  and  freely  admitted  by  competent 
authorities. 

The   Church  has  never  lost  her   solicitude   for 
woman,   and  in  particular  does  her  sympathy  go 

♦Consult :     "The  World  Problem,"  chapter  xxiv. 


54  PROTECTING   THE   WOMAN"   WORKER 

out  to  the  woman  worker  in  our  day.  Hence  the 
active  interest  we  are  called  upon  to  manifest  in  her 
regard. 

Care  must  be  taken,  first  of  all,  in  the  choice  of 
occupation  to  which  woman  can  be  safely  admitted. 
"Women,"  says  Pope  Leo  XIIL,  "are  not  suited  for 
certain  occupations."  This  fact  public  authorities 
were  forced  to  admit  even  under  the  very  stress  of 
war  conditions.  Practically  the  very  words  of  the 
Holy  Father  were  used  by  the  Government  officials 
of  the  United  States  in  their  labor  declarations.  In 
structure,  function,  character  and  aptitude,  women 
differ  from  men.  To  ignore  this  in  our  industrial 
life  is  worse  than  folly. 

So  also  in  the  circumstances  of  the  work  itself 
assigned  to  the  woman  worker,  there  is  need  of 
protecting  her  from  conditions  physically  or  morally 
injurious  or  dangerous  to  her.  It  is  necessary  to 
safeguard  her  from  excessive  burdens,  undue  strain, 
prolonged  hours,  night  labor  and  whatsoever  else 
may  be  prejudicial  to  her  sex,  or  to  her  present  or 
future  maternity.  In  particular  must  her  virtue  and 
modesty  be  held  free  from  hazard  both  in  the  choice 
and  circumstances  of  her  occupation. 

Indirectly  motherhood  should  be  protected  for 
the  nation's  good  by  removing  all  those  conditions 


PROTECTING   THE   WOMAN"   WORKER  55 

which  make  it  necessary  for  the  mother  of  the 
ifamily  to  enter  into  industrial  life.  Hence  the 
supreme  need  of  a  family  wage  for  the  father,  as 
has  already  been  clearly  stated,  that  woman  in  the 
home  may  devote  her  first  and  best  energies  to  the 
children  with  whom  God  may  bless  her. 

How  intimately  wages  are  connected  with  the 
life  of  the  child  born  in  the  laborer's  home  was 
vividly  illustrated  by  the  findings  of  the  Children's 
Bureau  of  the  United  States  Labor  Department,  in 
its  investigations  into  infant  mortality  conditions  in 
New  Bedford,  Mass.  Unskilled  and  semi-skilled 
occupations  predominated  in  the  local  cotton  mills. 
Practically  all  the  mothers,  the  report  stated,  were 
in  families  where  the  father  earned  less  than  the 
amount  necessary  to  maintain  a  decent  standard  of 
living.  As  a  result  half  of  the  mothers  were  gain- 
fully employed,  chiefly  in  the  cotton  mills,  before 
the  baby  was  born,  and  two-fifths  returned  to  their 
industrial  occupations  the  year  following  the  birth 
of  the  child.  The  consequence  was  that  in  the  low- 
wage  group  twenty  babies  out  of  every  hundred 
bom  alive  died  before  the  end  of  the  first  year, 
while  in  the  highest-wage  groups  only  six  out  of 
every  hundred  babies  died.  Poor  home  sanitation, 
congestion  in  crowded  tenement  districts,  lack  of 


56  PROTECTING   THE  WOMAN'  WORKER 

adequate  medical  care,  and  a  mother  unable  prop- 
erly to  care  for  her  child,  are  the  circumstances  that 
increase  to  such  an  awful  extent  the  mortality  of 
infants.  To  this  must  be  added  the  impossibility  of 
a  proper  intellectual,  moral  and  religious  training 
for  the  children.  In  its  report  on  infant  mortality 
in  Akron,  Ohio,  the  Children's  Bureau  thus  summed 
up  its  conclusion:  "This  report  gives  further  evi- 
dence of  the  fact  shown  in  the  previous  studies  of 
infant  mortality  by  the  Bureau,  that  as  fathers'  earn- 
ings increase,  infant  mortality  falls." 

Minimum  wage  legislation  is  especially  to  be  ap- 
plied in  regard  to  the  woman  wage-earner  that  she 
may  be  assured  a  sufficient  income  for  decent 
Christian  self-support  and  reasonable  recreation. 
There  must  be  no  need  of  partial  dependence  upon 
others,  and  provision  for  her  future  should  be  made 
economically  possible  for  her. 

To  Catholics,  above  all  others,  has  the  working 
woman  a  right  to  look  for  protection.  Her  well- 
being  physical,  recreational  and  intellectual,  moral 
and  religious,  should  be  for  us  a  question  of  the 
greatest  concern. 

The  Church,  in  turn,  rightly  impresses  upon  her 
the  obligation  of  fidelity  to  her  daily  task,  as  well 
as  the  dignity  of  labor,  in  which  she  participates 


PROTECTING   THE   WOMAN'   WORKER 


57 


with  the  Son  of  God.  Constantly  she  holds  out  to 
her  the  greatness  of  the  reward  in  store  for  her 
from  the  supreme  Lord  of  all  to  whom  her  labors 
are  offered  up  in  the  spirit  of  love  and  made  meri- 
torious in  His  sight  beyond  the  pomp  of  wealth  and 
rank.  Before  His  throne  her  modest  dress  and  honest 
toil  are  unspeakably  more  precious  than  all  the 
silks  and  satins  of  the  world,  its  honors  and  its 
glories.  There  is  no  discrimination  with  Him  be- 
tween rich  and  poor,  except  that  His  own  lot  in  life 
was  cast  with  the  latter.  Both  must  find  their  way  to 
heaven  by  the  self-same  path,  which  is  traveled 
most  easily  by  them  who  are  neither  encumbered 
with  riches  nor  weighed  down  with  an  oppressive 
poverty. 


58 


Fifth  Chapter 

Capitalism,  Past  and  Present 

Church  and  Capitalism 

That  the  Church  is  ranged  on  the  side  of  capital- 
ism is  an  accusation  repeatedly  made  in  the  SociaHst 
press.  The  purpose  of  such  statements  is  to  breed 
distrust  in  the  mind  of  the  worker,  and  to  discredit 
for  him  the  one  institution  that  has  ever  been  most 
profoundly  concerned  with  his  well-being,  both 
temporal  and  spiritual.  The  history  of  the  Catholic 
gilds,  the  industrial  as  well  as  political  democracy 
fostered  by  the  Church,  and  the  splendid  ecclesias- 
tical documents  upon  labor  given  us  in  recent  times 
by  Popes  and  Bishops,  eloquently  refute  all  such 
libels.* 

But  if  Socialism  has  consistently  fought  the 
Church  because  of  her  great  interest  in  the  labor- 
ing classes,  capitalism  has  often  been  no  less  uneasy 
at  the  practical  application  of  her  principles.  She 
teaches,  indeed,  the  need  of  radical  reconstruction; 
and  nothing  can  be  more  radical  than  her  continual 
insistence  upon  the  renewal  of  all  things  in  Christ. 


♦What  the  Church  has  done  for  labor  and  democracy  is 
fully  described  in  "Democratic  Industry."  The  ecclesiastical 
documents  to  which  reference  is  made  here  can  be  found  in 
the  volume  by  Ryan-Husslein,  "The  Church  and  Labor." 


CHURCH   AND   CAPITALISM  59 

This  renewal  must  begin  in  the  soul  of  the  indi- 
vidual, extend  to  the  home,  and  reach  out  finally  into 
every  ramification  of  the  industrial  and  commercial 
life  of  a  nation.  Its  attainment  implies  no  less  than 
the  consummated  reign  of  justice  and  charity  in  all 
our  relations  with  our  fellow  men,  public  as  well 
as  private,  social  as  well  as  domestic.  Could  any 
revolution  be  more  radical  than  that? 

And  yet  the  radicalism  of  the  Church  is  far  other 
than  any  the  Socialist  orator  ever  proposed.  It  is 
based  on  no  Marxian  gospel  of  fratricidal  strife,  but 
on  the  saving  doctrine  of  the  love  of  Christ.  It 
teaches  to  all  alike  the  need  of  unselfishness  and 
sacrifice  for  the  common  good.  It  manifests  itself 
in  the  preaching  of  duties  no  less  than  in  the  prot- 
.estation  of  rights.  It  favors  neither  capital  nor 
labor,  but  seeks  to  unite  them  both  under  the  law 
of  God  and  in  the  charity  that  knows  no  bounds  of 
rank  or  wealth. 

The  position  of  the  Church  is  one  of  absolute 
impartiality,  no  matter  how  much  her  motives  may 
be  misrepresented  in  the  eyes  of  men.  She  is  neither 
capitalist  nor  Socialist,  but  ever  holds  her  place  in 
the  van  of  all  true  social  progress. 


60  PRIVATE  CAPITAL 

/.   Private  Capital* 

The  Church  has  never  condemned  any  real  Chris- 
tian system  of  economics  that  is  based  on  private 
ownership  of  productive  property,  i.  e.,  of  capital. 
Such  a  system,  kept  within  the  bounds  of  strict 
justice  and  not  permitted  to  infringe  upon  the  su- 
preme rights  of  the  public  welfare,  must,  however, 
be  clearly  distinguished  from  that  historic  form  of 
capitalism  which  finds  its  strongest  condemnation 
in  the  Encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  "On  the  Con- 
dition of  Labor." 

A  just  system  of  private  capital  will  not  exclude 
pmblic  ownership  to  whatever  extent  the  common 
good  may  strictly  require  it,  provided  always  that 
due  compensation  is  made  to  private  owners. 
Neither,  however,  will  it  permit  the  introduction  of 
public  ownership  where  public  control  or  supervision 
of  existing  industries  suffices.  Lastly,  it  will  not 
allow  State  interference  to  be  carried  beyond  that 
point  where  the  general  well-being  actually  de- 
mands it. 

Historically  there  has  never  been  a  period  where 
the  private  possession  of  capital  was  not  the  eco- 
nomic basis  of  society.    This  held  true  equally  of 

*Consult:  "The  World  Problem."  pp.  35,  36  and  Chapter 
XXI. 


HISTORIC    CAPITALISM  61 

the  palmiest  days  of  the  Catholic  gilds.  It  was 
against  the  abuses  arising  from  the  undue  concen- 
tration of  capital  in  the  hands  of  a  few  that  the 
voice  of  the  Church  was  raised  at  all  times.  The 
purpose  of  the  Church  was  never  the  forcible  aboli- 
tion of  private  productive  property,  which  is  the 
ultimate  aim  of  Socialism,  but  rather  its  widest 
reasonable  and  just  diffusion  among  the  people. 
Such,  too,  was  the  aim  and  object  of  the  medieval 
gilds. 

Attempts  at  communism  have  from  time  to  time 
been  made  in  civil  society,  but  all  have  ended  in 
failure.  Bolshevism,  with  its  degeneracy  into  a 
worse  than  Czarist  absolutism,  has  been  the  latest 
example.  Communism  has  flourished  nowhere  ex- 
cept in  the  Religious  Orders  where  it  is  practised 
voluntarily  and  for  the  love  of  God. 

//.     Historic   Capitalism* 

Capitalism,  as  we  know  it  historically,  is  the 
economic  system  which  grew  out  of  the  Reformation 
at  a  period  when  the  social  principles  of  the  Church 
had  ceased  to  influence  industrial  and  commercial 
life.     It  stood  in  complete  opposition  to  the  tradi- 


*Consult:     "The  World  Problem,"   Chapter   IV;   "Demo- 
cratic Industry,"  Chapter  XXVIII. 


62  HISTORIC    CAPITALISM 

tional  economic  system  of  Catholic  times,  which  had 
preceded  it,  and  indeed  to  all  the  social  ideals  of  the 
Church. 

Both  capitalism  and  the  Church  favored  in  gen- 
eral the  private  ownership  of  productive  property. 
The  essential  difference  was  that  whereas  the 
Church  desired  this  ownership  to  be  shared  by  as 
many  of  the  workers  as  possible,  capitalism  tended 
to  wrest  it  from  them  entirely  and  concentrate  it  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  who  formed  a  monied  class  apart 
from  the  manual  workers. 

A  policy  of  non-interference  in  industrial  and 
commercial  matters,  both  on  the  part  of  the  State 
and  of  private  organizations,  was  the  first  demand 
of  the  new  capitalistic  system  which  now  arose. 
Hence  the  name  of  laissez  faire.  The  only  right  and 
duty  ascribed  to  the  State  by  this  false  economic 
theory  was  the  enforcement  of  all  legal  contracts, 
however  much  at  variance  they  might  be  with 
justice  and  the  natural  law.  Under  such  provision 
the  legal  suppression  of  all  labor  unions  was  suc- 
cessfully carried  out.  Without  protection  of  law  or 
gild,  the  weak  were  relentlessly  delivered  over  to 
the  merciless  exploitation  of  the  strong,  and  the 
State  became  a  police  force  to  keep  the  laborer  in 
subjection. 


HISTORIC    CAPITALISM  63 

The  second  feature  of  this  system  was  the  almost 
exclusive  domination  of  money-capital  in  the  eco- 
nomic field.  Labor  lost  not  merely  its  participation 
in  ownership,  but  also  in  the  control  and  manage- 
ment of  the  means  of  production  on  which  its  liveli- 
hood depended.   Money  ruled  the  world. 

The  third  feature  followed  from  the  former  two. 
It  was  the  subordination  of  all  other  considerations 
to  the  unrestricted  accumulation  of  personal  gain. 
A  man  guilty  of  heaven-crying  sins:  of  the  crime 
of  withholding  a  just  wage  from  his  employees, 
prevented  from  exercising  their  right  of  collective 
bargaining;  of  the  heartless  oppression  of  women 
and  children,  enslaved  under  the  most  unnatural 
working  conditions;  of  the  unregarded  death  of 
hapless  toilers,  made  the  victims  of  easily  avoidable 
accidents  or  industrial  diseases,  where  a  compara- 
tively slight  financial  outlay  might  have  saved  the 
health  and  life  of  many,  was  none  the  less  honored 
for  his  wealth  as  an  unblemished  gentleman  by  a 
society  deprived  of  its  Catholic  teachings  and 
traditions. 

Conscientious  employers,  needless  to  say,  suf- 
fered hardly  less  than  the  workers  themselves.  They 
were  obliged  to  meet,  as  best  they  could,  the  condi- 
tions of  an  unchristian  competition,  imposed  on  them 


64  HISTORIC    CAPITALISM 

by  this  pagan  system,  or  else  face  bankruptcy  and 
ruin. 

The  "evils  of  monopoly,"  consisting  in  an  arti- 
ficial raising  of  prices,  limitation  of  output  and  a 
deterioration  in  quality,  were  at  times  morally  on 
a  level  with  confiscation  and  the  practice  of  sabo- 
tage. Wealth  sought  purely  for  its  own  sake,  wealth 
acquired  without  a  thought  of  the  common  good, 
wealth  spent  as  if  it  gave  its  owner  a  right  to  any 
luxury  that  it  can  purchase,  is  a  public  scandal. 
Wealth  means  public  responsibility,  means  steward- 
ship in  the  name  of  God.  If  understood  in  any 
other  sense  it  is  a  public  evil.  No  wonder  then  that 
the  vices  of  an  unchristian  capitalism  in  turn  de- 
moralized labor.  What  wonder  if  the  latter  was 
affected  by  the  same  principles  and  entertained  the 
same  selfish  desires.  The  lesson  taught  it  by  too 
many  of  our  immense  corporations,  our  men  of 
business  and  dames  of  leisure  was  that  there  is 
nothing  in  life  worth  while  except  wealth  and  pleas- 
ure. Under  such  conditions  even  the  increase  in 
wages  cannot  create  a  true  contentment.  The  spirit 
itself  of  such  a  doctrine  must  first  g^ve  way  to  that 
other  spirit  which  is  of  Christ. 


PRESENT-DAY    CAPITALISM  65 

///.     Present-Day  Capitalism 

Capitalism,  as  to-day  it  exists,  has  perforce  been 
changed  considerably.  The  historic  description 
must,  to  say  the  least,  be  greatly  modified. 

The  principle  of  non-interference,  whose  great 
apostle  was  Adam  Smith,  has  in  practice  been 
broken  down  both  by  countless  State  legislations, 
and  by  the  rapidly  increasing  activity  of  labor 
unionism.  A  danger,  which  Christian  unionists 
must  now  avert,  is  that  organized  labor  may  at  times 
seek  to  reverse  the  role,  and  with  its  assumption  of 
political  influence  forget  the  common  good  in  the 
eager  promotion  of  its  own  advantages.  This  would 
mean  no  less  than  general  ruin.  Everywhere  and 
from  every  point  of  view  there  is  a  great  need  of 
socially  educated  Christian  labor  unionists. 

The  second  stronghold  of  historic  capitalism,  the 
absolute  power  of  money-capital  and  its  exclusive 
control  and  management  of  industry,  is  also  fast 
being  shaken.  Many  concessions  have  been  made 
and  many  a  truce  has  been  concluded.  But  this  is 
a  subject  to  be  treated  more  fully  in  the  following 
chapters. 

The  last  characteristic  of  historic  capitalism,  and 
the  root  of  our  modern  evils,  is  the  inordinate  de- 
sire  for   gain,   to   which   all   other  considerations. 


66  PRESENT-DAY    CAPITALISM 

whether  of  humanity  or  religion,  were  remorselessly 
sacrificed.  On  this  point  modern  labor  may  in  future 
sin  as  signally  as  capitalism,  unless  Christian  prin- 
ciples are  adopted. 

Among  employers  we  may  here  discern  a  clear 
division  of  spirits.  A  large  and  criminal  class  still 
adheres  to  the  old  capitalistic  methods  refined  by  all 
our  modern  financial  ingenuity.  They  are  known 
under  the  name  of  "profiteers"  and  constitute  the 
economic  decadents  and  degenerates  of  our  age. 
They  rank  with  the  anarchists  and  Bolshevists 
whom  they  claim  to  hold  in  such  abhorrence,  and, 
indeed,  are  far  more  dangerous  than  these.  The 
destructive  radicalism  of  the  time  is  mainly  bred  by 
them.  The  extortionate  demands  of  labor,  where 
such  occur,  are  based  upon  their  example,  and  have 
not  seldom  been  made  in  connivance  with  the  cap^ 
italist  profiteer.  When  this  comes  about  the  public 
has  doubly  fallen  into  the  hands  of  robbers! 

Lastly,  however,  we  find  among  employers,  as 
among  laborers,  those  who  earnestly  and  sincerely 
desire  the  welfare  of  the  entire  community,  who 
are  actuated  by  high  and  Christian  principles,  who 
honestly  look  for  the  coming  of  a  new  social  read- 
justment in  which  the  common  good  shall  be  the 
first  consideration,  where  social  justice  and  Chris- 


PRESENT-DAY    CAPITALISM  67 

tian  charity  shall  reign,  where  peace  and  harmony 
shall  be  restored  to  society,  where,  in  a  word,  the 
golden  rule  shall  once  for  all  supplant  the  rule  of 
gold. 

Many  are  the  qualities  that  must  combine  to 
form  the  ideal  Catholic  business  man.  Seldom  are 
they  all  found  in  their  perfection  in  a  single  indi- 
vidual. Like  the  perfect  knight  of  old,  he  should  be 
a  man  without  fear  and  without  reproach.  Faith 
should  be  the  loadstone  of  his  life.  He  should  not 
exalt  himself  in  his  own  conceit  above  others  who 
may  chance  to  be  his  inferiors  in  the  commercial 
or  industrial  life,  nor  should  he  sway  a  finger's 
breadth  from  Christian  principles  to  gain  the  favor 
and  support  of  men  of  influence.  Wealth  should 
have  for  him  no  supreme  attractiveness  in  itself, 
but  should  be  welcomed  as  affording  possibilities  of 
greater  service  in  the  interests  of  Christ,  as  a  trust 
for  the  poor,  and  in  stewardship  for  God.  He 
should  ever  place  above  all  things  the  Divine  ap- 
proval expressed  in  the  joyful  greeting  of  his 
Lord:  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant."  In 
spite  of  wealth  and  power,  his  greatest  commenda- 
tion at  life's  close  should  be  that  he  was  ever  num- 
bered among  "the  poor  in  spirit." 

Can  this  ideal  be  realized?     It  certainly  can,  or 
the  Church  would  not  propose  it  in  her  teaching. 


68 

Sixth  Chapter 
Democracy  in  Industry 

Social  Reconstruction 

The  demand  for  a  popular  rather  than  a  merely 
national  prosperity,  absorbed  by  a  few,  is  daily 
growing  stronger.  Labor  is  gradually  participating 
more  and  more  fully  in  the  fruits  of  industry.  The 
spirit  of  democracy  is  abroad.  Its  breath  is  felt  in 
the  factory  and  workshop.  The  ancient  Catholic 
gild  ideals  are  in  many  ways  reasserting  themselves 
in  the  minds  of  men  and  finding  expression  in 
various  plans  of  social  reconstruction. 

All  this  is  well,  provided  it  is  kept  within  the 
bounds  of  justice  and  right  reason.  There  is  danger 
that  labor  as  well  as  capital  may  follow  selfish  ends. 
Christian  principles  must  dominate  the  revival  of 
gild  ideas  as  we  now  find  them  expressed  under 
many  names,  the  most  popular  of  which  is  doubtless 
"Industrial  Democracy." 

/.     Proletarian  Dictatorship* 

Industrial  Democracy  has  received  as  many  defi- 
nitions as  there  are  classes  of  men  who  employ  the 
expression.   To  some  it  conveys  no  other  idea  than 
the  gross  conception  of  a  proletarian  dictatorship. 
♦Consult:    "Democratic  Industry,"  pp.  325,  326. 


PROLETARIAN    DICTATORSHIP  69 

Heaven-high  and  hell-deep  is  the  distance  separat- 
ing Christian  industrial  democracy,  such  as  existed 
in  the  best  days  of  the  Catholic  gilds,  from  the 
dreams  of  the  new  godless  "dictatorship  of  the 
masses,"  advocated  even  in  our  midst  by  Socialist 
agitators. 

Claiming  to  sweep  aside  all  class  distinctions,  it 
would  in  reality  replace  class  rule  by  class  rule.  On 
the  ruins  of  former  systems  and  institutions,  it 
would  establish  a  new  tyranny  far  worse  than  the 
old.  In  practice  it  implies  the  absolute  autocracy  of  a 
few  mob  leaders.  Unnatural  as  it  is  tyrannical,  it  can 
but  last  through  a  period  of  bloody  orgies,  when  it 
must  gradually  give  place  to  a  more  sane  and  demo- 
cratic form  of  government,  whether  by  internal 
transformation  or  by  new  and  bloody  civil  wars. 

It  is  unjust  because  based  upon  robbery.  It  is 
irreligious  because  it  would  destroy  alike  the  author- 
ity of  God  and  man,  while  at  the  same  time  it  would 
subject  all  to  its  own  relentless  system  of  espionage 
and  oppr£Ssion,  extending  over  the  school  and  press, 
reaching  even  into  the  sanctuary  and  the  home, 
and  tearing  down  the  altars  of  religion.  Honest 
labor  is  reduced  by  it  to  slavery  while  militarism 
rules  supreme.  Liberty  of  press  and  platform  is  at 
an  end.  We  have  seen  its  hand  at  work  in  many 
lands  and  know  its  nature. 


70  PROLETARIAN    DICTATORSHIP 

Such  is  Socialism  in  its  extreme  form  of  Bol- 
shevism. Yet  even  when  expressing  itself  in  more 
moderate  ways,  it  always  aims  to  transfer,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  the  means  of  production  into 
the  public  dominion.  The  actual  result  of  this  is  to 
deliver  the  people  themselves  into  the  power  of  a 
despotic  State,  governed  relentlessly  by  a  small  So- 
cialistic bureaucracy.  It  thus  becomes  more  danger- 
ous to  popular  liberty  than  any  form  of  autocratic 
capitalism  that  it  may  claim  to  supplant.  Hunger 
and  machine  guns  kept  the  worker  in  submission 
under  Bolshevism.  Historically,  every  form  of  So- 
cialism has  made  the  destruction  of  religion  a 
primary  aim.  It  matters  not  what  the  intentions  of 
individual  Socialists  to  the  contrary  may  be. 

How  far  all  this  is  removed  from  the  idea  of 
Christian  Democracy  is  clear  from  the  Encyclical  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  upon  this  subject.  He  thus  describes 
the  Catholic  ideal  of  Christian  brotherhood: 

"Christian  Democracy  is  built  on  the  basic  prin- 
ciples of  Divine  faith,  and  provides  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  masses,  with  the  ulterior  object  of  avail- 
ing itself  of  the  occasion  to  fashion  their  minds  for 
things  which  are  everlasting.  Hence  for  Christian 
Democracy  justice  is  sacred;  it  must  maintain  that 
the  right  of  acquiring  and  possessing  property  can- 


PROLETARIAN    DICTATORSHIP  71 

not  be  impunged,  and  it  must  safeguard  the  vari- 
ous distinctions  and  degrees  which  are  indispensable 
in  every  well-ordered  commonwealth.  Finally  it 
must  endeavor  to  preserve  in  every  human  society 
the  form  and  the  character  which  God  ever  im- 
presses upon  it.  It  is  clear  therefore  that  there  is 
nothing  in  common  between  Socialism  and  Chris- 
tian Democracy. 

"Moreover  it  would  be  a  crime  to  distort  this 
name  of  Christian  Democracy  to  politics,  for  al- 
though democracy,  both  in  its  philological  and 
philosophical  signification,  implies  popular  govern- 
ment, yet  in  its  present  application  it  is  so  to  be 
employed  that,  removing  from  it  all  political  sig- 
nificance, it  is  to  mean  nothing  else  than  a  benevolent 
and  Christian  movement  in  behalf  of  the  people. 

"In  the  same  manner,  from  Christian  Democracy 
we  must  remove  another  possible  subject  of  reproach, 
namely:  that  while  looking  after  the  advantage  of 
the  working  people  we  should  act  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  forget  the  upper  classes  of  society;  for  they 
also  are  of  the  greatest  use  in  preserving  and  per- 
fecting the  commonwealth.  As  we  have  explained, 
the  Christian  law  of  charity  will  prevent  us  from  so 
doing.  For  it  extends  to  all  society,  and  all  should 
be  treated  as  members  of  the  same  family,  as  chil- 


72  CATHOLIC    INDUSTRIAL    IDEALS 

dren  of  the  same  Heavenly  Father,  as  redeemed  by 
the  same  Saviour,  and  called  to  the  same  eternal 
heritage.  Hence  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostle  who 
warns  us  that:  'We  are  one  body  and  one  spirit 
called  to  the  one  hope  in  our  vocation;  one  Lord, 
one  Faith  and  one  Baptism;  one  God  and  the  Fa- 
ther of  all  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in 
us  all.'  Wherefore  on  account  of  the  nature  of  the 
union  which  exists  between  the  different  classes  of 
society  and  which  Christian  brotherhood  makes  still 
closer,  it  follows  that  no  matter  how  great  our  de- 
votion may  be  in  helping  the  people,  we  should  all 
the  more  keep  our  hold  upon  the  upper  classes,  be- 
cause association  with  them  is  proper  and  necessary, 
for  the  happy  issue  of  the  work  in  which  we  are 
engaged." 

//.     Catholic  Industrial  Ideals* 

The  industrial  ideals  of  the  Church  can  be  clearly 
ascertained  from  her  traditions  of  Catholic  times, 
so  far  as  her  influence  was  heeded  in  the  gild-life  of 
the  past;  and  from  the  ringing  social  pronounce- 
ments of  her  Hierarchy  in  more  recent  days.  This 
we  have  already  pointed  out.  She  never  contents 
herself  with  a  purely  negative  attitude,  but  while 

♦Consult:    "The  World  Problem,"  Chapter  XXV;  "Demo- 
cratic Industry,"  passim. 


CATHOLIC    INDUSTRIAL    IDEALS  73 

stigmatizing  the  moral  defects  of  false  social  move- 
ments, she  does  not  fear  to  set  forth  her  own  con- 
structive ideas. 

In  their  immediate  demands  her  spokesmen,  in 
modern  times,  have  urged  such  measures  as  could 
bring  direct  benefits  to  thi  working  classes.  They 
have  upheld  the  just  rights  of  the  worker  and  de- 
fended his  legitimate  aspirations.  They  have  gone 
further  and  have  envisaged  the  industrial  democracy 
of  the  future  in  the  light  of  the  Church's  traditional 
past.  In  opposition  to  both  Socialism  and  the 
Reformation  capitalism,  they  have  set  forth  the 
ideal  of  a  wider  distribution  of  the  private  owner- 
ship of  productive  property,  long  ago  proposed  by 
Pope  Leo  XIII.  as  the  foundation  of  the  new  re- 
construction. Definite  application  of  this  teaching 
was  made  by  the  American  Bishops  in  their  first 
ennunciation  of  the  principle  that:  "The  majority 
must  somehow  become  owners,  at  least  in  part,  of 
the  instruments  of  production."  ("Social  Recon- 
struction," p.  22.) 

To  bring  this  about  a  study  of  our  Catholic  his- 
toric past,  with  its  gild  ideals  (see  "Democratic 
Industry"),  is  imperative.  Of  particular  importance, 
as  the  Bishops  state,  is  the  gradual  extension  of 
cooperation  and  copartnership,  in  which  the   gild 


74  LOOKING   TOWARDS   THE    DAWN 

principles  find  their  practical  applications  in  our  day. 
These  are  developments,  however,  that  can  not 
be  hastily  precipitated.  They  suppose  education 
equally  on  the  part  of  the  employer  and  the  laborer. 
They  suppose  thrift,  industry,  perseverance  and  in- 
telligence, often  so  little  cultivated  and  yet  of  such 
vital  necessity  for  all  who  would  avail  themselves 
of  their  opportunities.  The  fatal  levelling  process, 
by  which  an  equal  reward  and  an  equal  voice  in  in- 
dustry is  to  be  rashly  given  to  all,  no  matter  how 
unskilled,  unthrifty,  uneconomic  or  idle  in  their 
methods  of  work,  is  a  world  removed  from  the  true 
industrial  democracy  of  the  gilds,  which  assured  to 
each  man  his  opportunity,  but  demanded  of  him  in 
turn  a  careful  preparation  and  a  full  test  of  worthi- 
ness, economically,  morally  and  religiously,  before 
he  was  admitted  to  a  position  of  responsibility  and 
a  participation  in  the  free  conduct  of  his  industry. 
It  will  not  be  impossible  to  apply  to  our  own  large- 
scale  industries  the  gild  ideals  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

///.     Looking  Towards  the  Dazvn* 

A  beginning  has  been  made  in  social  reconstruc- 
tion. While  Socialism  was  proclaiming  its  extreme 
demands,  and  destructively  enforcing  them  in  many 


♦Consult :     "Democratic  Industry,"  Chapter  XXX. 


LOOKING   TOWARDS   THE   DAWN  75 

lands,  there  were  not  a  few  prudent  and  wise  em- 
ployers of  labor  who  sought  in  their  own  turn  to 
approach  nearer  to  the  Catholic  ideals  we  have  de- 
scribed. Many  have  been  beforehand  in  their  efforts 
to  provide  improved  conditions  of  labor.  Intelli- 
gence and  altruism  have  frequently  combined  to 
bring  about  friendly  relations.  Profit-sharing  has 
been  tried  in  many  and  various  ways.  Copartner- 
ship plans  have  not  seldom  proved  successful,  and 
the  desire  of  labor  to  participate  in  the  control  and 
management  of  economic  enterprises,  on  their  in- 
dustrial side,  has  often  been  freely  conceded  and 
even  generously  anticipated. 

Particular  attention  may  here  be  called  to  the  pro- 
gram of  the  British  Quaker  Employers,  which  met 
with  approval  on  the  part  of  the  Bishops  forming 
the  Administraive  Committee  of  the  National 
Catholic  War  Council.  These  employers  not  merely 
insisted  on  the  right  of  labor  to  organize  and  bar- 
gain collectively — which  is  not  open  to  debate — but 
also  desired  the  workers  to  participate  in  the  indus- 
trial part  of  the  business  management.  This  partici- 
pation was  explained  by  them  as  extending  to  "the 
control  of  processes  and  machinery;  nature  of 
product;  engagement  and  dismissal  of  employees; 
hours  of  work;  rates  of  pay;  bonuses,  etc.;  welfare 


76  LOOKING   TOWARDS    THE    DAWN 

work ;  shop  discipline ;  relations  with  trade  unions." 
Applications  of  more  or  less  democratic  principles 
to  shop  organization  have  now  become  sufficiently 
familiar.  The  first  to  arouse  general  attention  in 
England  and  America  were  the  Whitley  plan  in 
Great  Britain  and  the  Leitch  plan  and  Filene  plan 
in  the  United  States.  The  degree  of  industrial  de- 
mocracy naturally  differed  greatly  in  the  various 
schemes  as  actually  applied. 

Long  ago  Victor  Cathrein,  S.J.  had  advocated 
the  creation  of  shop  committees  to  be  made  obli- 
gatory in  all  the  industries.  Their  purpose  was  to 
be  the  adjustment  of  difficulties  between  employers 
and  working-men.  The  latter  were  to  elect  their 
representatives,  authorized  to  submit  to  the  em- 
ployer the  desires  and  requests  of  the  men,  and  to 
confer  with  him  upon  all  these  points.  {Moral- 
philosophic,  I,  p.  628.) 

The  shop-committee  plan  as  endorsed  by  the 
American  Catholic  Bishops  goes  much  further.  It 
embraces  participation  in  the  industrial  part  of  the 
business  management  by  the  committee,  working 
where  possible  in  conjunction  with  the  trade  union : 
"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  frank  adoption  of 
these  means  and  ends  by  employers  would  not  only 
promote   the  welfare   of  the   workers,   but   vastly 


LOOKING   TOWARDS   THE   DAWN  77 

improve  the  relations  between  them  and  their 
employers,  and  increase  the  efficiency  and  produc- 
tiveness of  each  establishment."  ("Social  Recon- 
struction," p.  19.) 

As  for  the  progress  of  the  cooperative  idea,  we 
need  but  quote  here  a  single  example  from  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Ail-American  Cooperative  Commis- 
sion :  "British  workers  may  now  have  their  houses 
built  by  the  cooperative  building  gild,  furnished  by 
the  furniture-workers'  cooperative  gild,  equipped  to 
the  last  detail  by  the  various  factories  of  the  Co- 
operative Wholesale  Society,  and  insured  by  the 
Cooperative  Assurance  Society,  all  on  a  non-profit 
basis." 

So  we  have  in  reality  progressed  a  great  way 
towards  a  modern  application  of  the  Catholic  gild 
idea,  whose  full  realization  can  be  found  in  the 
perfect  development  of  the  Christian  concept  of 
cooperation  and  copartnership,  of  which  we  shall 
treat  more  fully  in  the  following  chapter.  Not  class 
struggle,  but  class  harmony  is  the  Catholic  solution. 
Yet,  we  must  not  delude  ourselves  into  believing 
that  this  can  be  brought  about  without  the  aid  of 
religion. 


78 


Seventh  Chapter 

Copartnership  and  Cooperation 

Modern*  Gild  Ideals 

The  solution  of  the  industrial  problem,  as  Pius  X. 
wisely  pointed  out,  can  best  be  found  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  medieval  gild  ideal  to  modern  condi- 
tions. The  little  workshop,  with  perhaps  its  two 
journeymen  and  its  single  apprentice,  under  a  skill- 
ful and  experienced  master  gildsman,  has  given  way 
to  the  extensive  factory  with  its  mighty  engines 
served  by  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  busy  la- 
borers. The  old  relations  have  been  severed  that 
made  the  journeyman  as  an  elder  son  in  his  em- 
ployer's family,  while  the  apprentice  looked  for  his 
physical  and  spiritual  welfare  no  less  than  for  his 
advance  in  technical  skill  to  the  master,  who  re- 
ceived him  in  sacred  trust  under  his  own  roof-tree. 
Yet  it  does  not  follow  that  the  new  order,  which 
was  introduced  with  the  invention  of  machinery, 
cannot  in  turn  be  humanized  and  Christianized. 

/.     Copartnership  and  Profit-SIiarmg 

Not  a  little  of  the  medieval  gild  ideal  is  contained 

in   the   system   of  copartnership.    It  establishes   a 

certain  fellowship  between  employers  and  employed, 

the  more  close  in  proportion  as  the  laborer  partici- 


COPARTNERSHIP    AND    PROFIT-SHARING  79 

pates  more  intimately  in  the  interests  and  more 
largely  in  the  dividends  of  the  business  with  which 
he  is  linked,  not  as  a  wage-earner  merely,  but  as  a 
"partner." 

One  of  the  main  objections  urged  against  profit- 
sharing  and  copartnership  schemes  is  that  the 
worker  is  willing  indeed  to  divide  the  profits  with 
his  employer,  but  hesitates  to  share  in  his  losses. 
Experience  has  shown  in  many  instances  that  such 
is  not  necessarily  the  case.  Workers,  under  these 
circumstances,  have  been  found  willing  to  take  the 
initiative  in  suggesting  such  reductions  of  wages  as 
they  realized  were  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the 
industry  and  its  future  prosperity. 

An  instance  in  point  is  that  cited  by  Col.  P.  H. 
Callahan  in  the  Fortnightly  Review.  He  thus  re- 
counts his  own  experience  in  profit-sharing  during 
a  period  of  industrial  depression : 

"During  times  of  prosperity  our  employees 
shared  equally  with  the  capital  invested,  in  the  ratio 
of  their  monthly  and  weekly  wages,  the  profits 
which  the  company  produced.  Before  the  end  of 
the  year,  when  they  were  advised  of  the  actual  con- 
dition of  affairs  and  given  details  in  figures  of  the 
loss  w^hich  was  being  encountered,  they  were  asked 
to  make   suggestions  and  recommendations  as  to 


80  COPARTNERSHIP    AND    PROFIT-SHARING 

what  could  be  done  to  meet  the  extraordinary  con- 
ditions existing.  We  found  them  making  recom- 
mendations for  the  curtailment  of  the  number  of 
employees.  Later,  when  there  was  no  improvement 
after  the  first  year,  they  suggested  that  inasmuch  as 
the  company  had  shared  with  them  its  profits  during 
prosperity,  they  expected  to  share  its  losses  as  much 
as  possible  during  the  time  of  adversity,  to  the  end 
that  they  accepted  cheerfully  a  reduction  in  wages 
of  twenty  per  cent,  with  the  assurance  that  every- 
body connected  with  the  firm  in  any  capacity  would 
make  the  same  concession." 

In  regard  to  the  reduction  of  working  forces,  the 
laborers'  committee  concluded  that  the  old  em- 
ployees were  to  be  retained,  and  that  necessary  dis- 
missals should  take  place  from  among  those  who 
had  been  engaged  during  the  two  previous  years 
of  prosperity.  "This  spirit  of  industrial  coopera- 
tion," Col.  Callahan  adds,  "cannot  be  achieved  in 
a  day,  and  can  only  be  produced  by  coming  clean 
with  the  facts  and  figures,  so  that  everybody  will 
know  the  actual  conditions  existing,  to  the  same 
extent  as  the  proprietors."  He  further  considers  it 
important  that  there  should  be  representation  on 
the  part  of  the  employees  "in  directing  matters  on 
which  their  lives,  their  families  and  their  future 
depend." 


COOPERATION  81 

There  are  many  varieties  of  copartnership  and 
profit-sharing,  not  all  equally  advantageous  to  the 
worker.  But  no  system  of  whatever  kind  must  ever 
be  allowed  to  take  the  place,  even  in  the  slightest 
degree,  of  the  living  wage.  Only  when  this  has 
been  fully  assured  to  the  laborer  can  there  be  ques- 
tion of  supplementing  it  by  other  methods,  so  far 
as  the  employer  is  concerned. 

//.     Cooperation 

Copartnership  plans  do  not  offer  the  same  diffi- 
culties that  present  themselves  in  cooperative  pro- 
duction, though  here  we  find  the  closest  approxima- 
tion to  the  gild  ideal. 

Cooperative  buying  and  selling  as  well  as  co- 
operative credit  associations  have  proved  eminently 
successful  and  have  been  widely  adopted  in  all 
countries.  The  farmer,  too,  has  in  various  ways 
profited  greatly  by  cooperative  methods.  In  these 
instances,  therefore,  the  cooperative  system  is  no 
longer  on  trial,  although  it  would  be  rash  to  intro- 
duce it  an)rwhere  without  the  proper  education  and 
preparation. 

Even  in  the  United  States,  which  has  perhaps 
been  the  last  of  the  great  countries  of  the  world  to 
interest  itself  extensively  in  the  idea  of  cooperation, 


82  COOPERATION 

we  find  that  the  cooperative  movement  had  won 
such  strength  that  as  early  as  19 17  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  appointed  a  special  committee 
on  this  subject.  It  earnestly  recommended  to  the 
workers  the  Rochdale  cooperative  system,  which  had 
been  so  continuously  successful  in  Great  Britain, 
and  thus  outlined  its  principles : 

1.  A  democratic  organization. 

2.  One  vote  for  each  member  with  equality  in 
share  ownership. 

3.  Cash  returns  quarterly  to  members  of  the 
difference  between  the  total  amount  they  have  paid 
for  their  purchases  and  the  lesser  cost  of  these  pur- 
chases to  the  cooperative  society.  This  cost  includes 
depreciation  and  a  reasonable  amount  set  aside  for 
a  reserve  fund  to  meet  emergencies  and  extend  the 
business. 

4.  Rejection  of  the  principle  of  profits. 

5.  Current  interest  on  loan  capital. 

6.  Sales,  where  possible,  preferably  to  members 
only. 

7.  Distributive  cooperation  to  precede  produc- 
tive. 

8.  A  sufficient  number  of  retail  stores  to  be 
established  to  assure  a  market  before  a  wholesale 
department  is  created. 


COOPERATIVE  PRODUCTION  83 

9.  Observance  of  methods  recommended  by  the 
International  Cooperative  Alliance. 

The  cooperative  movement,  in  fine,  was  strongly 
recommended  as  a  "twin  remedy"  with  the  trade 
union,  that  while  one  is  to  secure  adequate  wages 
the  other  may  secure  full  value  in  the  purchases 
made  with  these  wages:  "Each  is  in  a  degree  be- 
yond measure  a  factor  in  the  economic,  social, 
political  and  educational  development  of  the  wage- 
earning  masses." 

///.     Cooperative  Production 

But  while  no  one  can  doubt  the  success  of  co- 
operative trading,  which  at  once  removes  an  army  of 
middlemen;  or  of  cooperative  credit  systems,  which 
have  certainly  brought  untold  blessings  to  the  farm- 
ing population  in  particular ;  or  even  of  cooperation 
in  various  productive  processes  upon  the  land,  such 
as  dairying,  there  still  remains  considerable  hesita- 
tion in  regard  to  cooperative  production  in  industry. 
Competition,  on  the  part  of  labor,  with  the  countless 
millions  at  the  disposal  of  capitalist  corporations  is 
no  easy  task.  And  yet  even  in  this  field,  too,  coopera- 
tion has  scored  not  a  few  successes,  although  it  has 
also  met  with  many  failures.  It  supposes  that  the 
workers  purchase   or  newly    establish    their    own 


84  COOPERATIVE  PRODUCTION 

manufacturing  plants,  of  which  they  are  to  possess 
the  shares  of  stock  individually,  and  which  they  will 
manage  through  their  own  chosen  representatives. 

Cooperative  production,  thus  understood,  is  pri- 
vate ownership  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 
although  it  differs  from  capitalism  as  greatly  as  it 
is  removed  from  Socialism.  It  embraces  the  perfect 
social  ideal  under  the  modern  system  of  production, 
but  all  can  realize  how  difficult  it  is  of  attainment 
in  our  large-scale  industry.  Here,  as  in  all  great 
democratic  developments  in  industry,  there  is  need 
of  religion.  The  Catholic  Church  was  the  greatest 
factor  in  these  developments  that  history  has  known, 
as  the  craft  gilds,  sustained  for  centuries  by  her 
spirit  in  all  that  was  wisest  and  noblest  in  them, 
bear  ample  testimony.  She  can  again  become  the 
mightiest  factor  in  the  solution  of  the  social  prob- 
lems today.  Cooperation  calls  for  that  true  brother- 
hood which  she  alone  can  give  in  its  perfection. 

But  aside  from  all  this,  there  is  need  of  no  little 
education  in  cooperative  efforts,  no  little  personal 
acumen,  strength  of  character  and  perseverance  for 
the  workers  to  struggle  successfully  with  the  great 
problem  of  cooperative  production.  That  they  have 
done  so  in  not  a  few  instances  is  a  great  triumph 
and  a  promise  of  a  better  future.    To  the  possibility 


MODERN    GILD   SYSTEMS  85 

of  cooperative  production  undertaken  on  a  large 
plan  I  shall  devote  the  following  chapter. 

Cooperative  enterprises  may  never  entirely  dis- 
place the  capitalist  system,  nor  may  this  be  desir- 
able, but  they  can  at  least  be  conducted  on  a  far 
larger  scale,  side  by  side  with  it.  The  future  does 
not  lie  with  Socialism,  whose  failure  is  sufficiently 
clear,  nor  with  capitalism  as  we  have  known  it  in  the 
past,  but  there  is  every  reason  to  look  for  a  great 
and  intelligent  development  of  the  cooperative  idea. 

IV.     Modern  Gild  Systems 

As  a  further  application  of  the  gild  idea,  often 
intermingled  with  philosophical  and  sociological 
fallacies,  we  have  the  many  modern  systems  advo- 
cating not  merely  economic,  but  also  political  or- 
ganization according  to  industries  and  professions. 
Each  interest  of  importance  is  thus  to  be  represented 
by  its  own  delegated  experts  in  the  councils  of  the 
nations. 

Leading  Catholic  sociologists  strongly  favor  in- 
dustrial organizations  that  shall  embrace  both 
employers  and  employed,  thus  creating  a  solidarity 
between  them  in  the  development  and  protection  of 
their  mutual  interests  and  at  the  same  time  breaking 
down  the  old  capitalistic  over-lordship  to  make  way 


86  MODERN    GILD   SYSTEMS 

for  a  true  democracy,  socially  and  economically, 
where  the  common  good  shall  be  promoted  by  all. 
State  authority  is  to  be  invoked  wherever  other 
legitimate  means  do  not  suffice  to  bring  about  this 
end.  The  false  mechanistic  idea  of  society  is  to  give 
way  to  the  Catholic  concept  of  the  social  organism 
in  which  all  parts  cooperate  for  the  general  welfare. 
Hence  also  the  name  of  "solidarism"  given  by  many 
to  this  Catholic  social  system. 

Writing  in  Studies  of  that  particular  aspect  of  the 
"plan  system"  by  which  different  industries  were  to 
be  set  up  as  self-governing  bodies  in  Germany, 
officially  recognized  by  the  State,  Father  Constantin 
Noppel,  S.J.,  said:  "Their  idea  was  that  the  com- 
mon good  rather  than  private  gain  of  individual 
capitalists  should  be  the  guiding  principle  in  the 
economic  life  of  the  country.  .  .  .  The  industrial 
system  was  to  be  lifted  out  of  its  atomic  individual- 
ism. The  gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  to  reap- 
pear in  a  modern  form  as  self-governing  bodies. 
.  .  .  These  principles,  stripped  of  Mollendorf's 
extravagant  and  ill-digested  methods,  are  still  guid- 
ing principles  for  the  most  widely  different  circles 
of  German  economic  thought." 

Similarly  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  the  Gild 
Socialism  of  England  was  inspired  by  the  medieval 


MODERN    GILD    SYSTEMS  87 

gilds.  Yet  Gild  Socialists,  desiring  to  hand  over  to 
the  State  the  possession  of  all  the  industries,  to  be 
managed  by  those  engaged  in  them,  is  seriously  at 
fault  in  striking  at  the  foremost  gild  principle.  This 
consists  in  the  safeguarding  of  private  productive 
property  together  with  the  promotion  of  the  widest 
just  distribution  of  ownership  among  the  masses, 
to  be  brought  about  neither  by  revolution  nor  con- 
fiscation, but  by  methods  and  laws  in  full  conformity 
with  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 


88 

Eighth  Chapter 
Labor  and  Capital  in  One 

Is  Cooperative  Production  Workable? 

Christian  economists,  imbued  with  the  traditions 
of  the  Church  and  the  social  teachings  of  the  Holy 
See,  will  agree  in  their  outline  of  the  ideal  industrial 
order.  It  is  equally  removed  from  Socialism  on 
the  one  hand,  and  from  every  form  of  capitalistic 
greed  on  the  other.  It  must  safeguard  the  posses- 
sion of  private  property  in  the  most  perfect  of  all 
possible  ways,  by  preventing  its  accumulation  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  and  promoting  its  utmost  diffusion, 
by  just  and  legal  means,  among  the  people.  But 
for  this  purpose  no  more  thorough  solution  can  be 
offered  than  cooperative  production,  so  far  as  it  may 
be  feasible  under  our  modern  system  of  large-scale 
manufacture, 

/.    A  Christian  Ideal 

Yet  it  Is  one  thing  to  propose  this  as  an  ideal,  and 
quite  another  to  maintain  that  It  Is  practically 
possible  at  any  given  time.  The  American  Bishops 
who  signed  the  document  on  "Social  Reconstruc- 
tion" had  plainly  this  ideal  in  their  minds,  yet  they 
did  not  insist,  even  in  their  vision  of  the  future, 
upon  its  complete  realization.     They  were  willing 


A   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL  89 

to  place  side  by  side  with  it  the  more  easily  work- 
able plan  of  simple  copartnership.  But  they  wished 
nonetheless  clearly  to  encourage,  to  the  utmost  just 
and  reasonable  extent,  the  development  of  co- 
operative production,  in  which  the  workers  individ- 
ually own  the  shares  of  the  factories  or  establish- 
ments in  which  they  labor,  and  collectively  manage 
the  operation  of  these  industries  through  their 
chosen  representatives.  Such  is  the  Catholic  con- 
cept of  cooperative  production. 

The  essence  of  Socialism  is  ownership  of  the 
means  of  production  by  the  community,  the  essence 
of  Red  Syndicalism  is  collective  ownership  of  each 
industry  by  the  men  engaged  in  it.  I  refer  here 
merely  to  their  economic  side.  Cooperative  pro- 
duction, in  its  Catholic  sense,  is  the  extreme  anti- 
thesis of  all  these  systems.  It  opposes  to  every  form 
of  collective  ownership,  no  less  than  to  the  post- 
Reformation  form  of  capitalism,  the  perfect  Catholic 
ideal  of  the  widest  diffusion  of  private  ownership 
among  the  people  without  injustice  to  anyone,  with- 
out compulsion  of  expropriation.  It  is  thus  the 
consummation  of  all  that  Popes  and  Bishops  and 
Christian  sociologists  have  fought  and  striven  for 
these  many  years.  There  is  but  one  question  to  be 
asked  :     "Is  it  workable  ?" 


90  A  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL 

Cooperative  trading  and  cooperative  banking,  it 
will  be  granted,  are  problems  that  have  been  defi- 
nitely solved.  There  can  be  question  only  of  a  wider 
extension  and  development  of  these  ideas  and  of  the 
popular  education  that  must  precede  and  accompany 
their  introduction  into  any  community.  As  these 
lines  were  written  the  Order  of  Railroad  Telegra- 
phers had  just  announced  the  establishment  of  its 
new  bank  with  $300,000  capital.  Similar  banks  had 
been  established  but  shortly  before  by  the  Machin- 
ists' and  the  Engineers'  unions. 

Nine  million  dollars  in  ten  months  was  the  rec- 
ord of  this  last  named  trade  union  bank.  The  Broth- 
erhood of  Locomotive  Engineers'  National  Bank  of 
Cleveland,  as  it  is  called,  opened  November  i,  1920, 
with  resources  of  $650,971.77.  In  six  months  they 
had  grown  to  $7,000,000.  By  September  10,  1921, 
this  workingmen's  bank  had  taken  its  place  among 
the  leading  financial  institutions  of  the  city,  with 
exactly  $9,356,343.28  in  its  strong  box.  A  new 
structure  of  twenty-one  stories  was  to  be  erected  for 
its  business.  The  resources  of  the  bank  were  to  be 
used  for  productive  purposes,  "with  the  ideal  of 
service  kept  constantly  in  view."  Its  profits  were 
distributed  among  its  working-people  depositors. 
Surely  a  wiser  proceeding  than  handing  them  over 
to  Wall  Street. 


WHEN    LABOR    BECOMES    CAPITAL  91 

Cooperative  production,  too,  as  we  have  said,  has 
in  many  ways  been  successfully  realized,  as  in 
dairying,  farming  and  kindred  employments.  The 
question  of  supreme  interest  and  importance  is  now 
the  application  of  this  same  principle  to  the  processes 
of  manufacture. 

//.     When  Labor  Becomes  Capital 

Cooperative  production  in  industry,  as  we  have 
frequently  stated  here,  has  its  own  peculiar  diffi- 
culties which  account  for  the  many  failures  in  the 
past.  But  it  has  also  won  its  signal  victories.  It 
is  still  decidedly  a  "venture."  The  greatest  obstacle 
in  its  way  is  not  the  want  of  capital,  which  labor 
would  be  able  to  accumulate,  but  the  want  of  prep- 
aration and  education.  Management  would  present 
no  lasting  difficulty;  since  labor  could  hire  this  as 
capital  does  today,  at  the  same  terms  and  under  the 
same  conditions.  Labor,  in  fact,  would  then  be 
capital  as  well,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  could 
not  do  what  capitalism  is  doing  now,  so  far  as 
efficiency  is  concerned.  Cooperative  establishments 
would  thus  be  conducted  side  by  side  with  capital- 
istic institutions,  and  the  latter,  even  should  co- 
operation prove  successful,  would  probably  never  be 
entirely  supplanted.    The  main  initial  obstacle  would 


92  WHEN    LABOR    BECOMES    CAPITAL 

be  offered  by  that  portion  of  entrenched  capitahsm 
that  is  without  conscience  and  without  consideration 
for  anything  except  its  own  aggrandizement.  While 
far  from  agreeing  with  Mr.  Cole  on  many  points, 
or  from  accepting  his  Gild  Socialism,  we  cannot  fail 
to  realize  with  him  the  opposition  which  a  co- 
operative system,  in  its  initial  stages,  is  likely  to  meet 
from  such  corporations : 

**It  would  not  only  be  systematically  undersold, 
even  at  a  loss;  it  would  be  held  up  or  blackmailed 
for  the  raw  materials,  machinery,  etc.,  which  it 
would  have  to  secure  from  other  private  firms. 
Even  progressive  employers  in  the  engineering 
trades  have  sometimes  found  the  difficulty  of  main- 
taining a  low  cost  of  production  in  face  of  the  hos- 
tility of  big  combines ;  and  certainly  these  combines 
would  spare  no  effort  to  crush  out  of  existence  a 
trade  union  competitor." 

To  obviate  this  Mr.  Cole  would  modify  the  trade 
unions  along  gild  lines,  and  prepare  them  to  take 
over  entirely  our  large-scale  industries.  When  that 
time  has  come  the  capitalist  would  be  bought  out 
compulsorily.  We  propose  no  such  compulsory 
plan,  although  legal  measures  should  certainly  be 
taken,  if  necessary,  to  safeguard  and  even  encourage 
cooperative  production.     Nor  would  we  have  the 


TAKING  A  LEAF  FROM   CAPITALISM  93 

industries  owned  by  the  workers  collectively,  al- 
though this  in  itself  is  not  opposed  to  any  moral 
principle,  provided  the  industries  have  first  been 
justly  acquired.  "How,  then,"  it  will  be  asked,  "can 
the  cooperative  ideal  be  realized?"  To  which  I 
reply  with  the  Irishman's  answer:  "How  is  the 
capitalists'  corporation  realized?" 

///.     Taking  a  Leaf  From  Capitalism 

Capitalist  corporations  avail  themselves  freely  of 
borrowed  capital.  Their  bonds,  notes  and  preferred 
■stock  are  purchased  by  the  general  public,  which  is 
little  concerned  with  management,  and  rests  con- 
tent with  coupon-clipping.  The  corporation  is  con- 
trolled by  the  owners  of  the  common  stock,  who 
engage  a  competent  management.  They  not  seldom  • 
capitalize,  not  merely  their  ability  and  knowledge, 
but  their  shrewd  speculations  and  hopes  in  lieu  of 
the  full  amount  of  money  that  the  stocks  would 
seem  to  represent.  To  unscrupulous  watering  of 
stock  are  added  other  methods  still  more  dangerous 
to  unwary  investors.  The  actual  business  pro- 
cesses are  often  dark  and  devious.  Labor,  the 
public,  or  perhaps  the  unsophisticated  investor  may 
pay  the  price  for  the  millions  that  are  pocketed  by  a 
few.     But  wrong  as  many  of  these  methods  are, 


94  TAKING  A  LEAF  FROM   CAPITALISM 

labor  may  well  copy  whatever  is  just  and  right. 

Where  cooperative  production  is  attempted  by  a 
labor  organization  it  can  build  or  rent  its  factory 
and  hire  able  management  in  the  same  market  with 
capitalism.  It  can  strictly  retain  its  common  stock 
for  those  actually  engaged  on  its  own  working  staff, 
from  chairman  and  manager  down  to  its  office  force, 
and  its  skilled  and  unskilled  labor,  while  it  issues 
its  bonds  and  notes  and  preferred  stock  to  all  others 
who  may  wish  to  purchase  them.  It  can,  in  fine, 
employ  its  expert  lawyers  to  draw  up  papers  of 
incoporation  which  will  ensure  full  protection  to  the 
bondholding  class.  In  an  article  contributed  on  this 
subject  to  the  New  Republic  by  Mr.  Berle,  all  of 
whose  views  I  do  not  share,  a  series  of  pertinent 
questions  are  asked.  Here  are  some  of  his  answers 
that  will  be  found  unusually  comprehensive  and 
satisfying : 

How  shall  the  stock  be  distributed  ?  Accord- 
ing to  the  fairest  appraisal  of  the  value  of  the 
employee-stockholder's  services.  The  general 
manager  ought  to  have  more  stock  than  the 
unskilled  worker.  His  vote  at  a  stockholders' 
meeting  ought  to  be  worth  more.  He  has 
earned  it.  What  about  wages?  Every  em- 
ployee ought  to  draw  a  regular  base  pay  just 


TAKIN'G  A  LEAF  FROM   CAPITALISM  95 

as  a  partner  in  a  firm  is  entitled  to  his  drawing 
account ;  he  must  live.  How  about  labor  turn- 
over? One  hopes  this  scheme  w^ould  lessen  it; 
but  men  will  always  leave  old  jobs  for  new. 
Whejt  a  man  leaves  his  job  he  must  leave  his 
stock  too — resell  it  to  the  corporation,  to  use 
the  vocabulary  of  corporation  law,  for  a  price. 
What  price?  The  amount  by  which  the  value 
of  the  stock  has  been  increased  while  that  em- 
ployee held  it.  If  while  he  held  it  bonds  have 
been  paid  off  and  reserves  accumulated  out  of 
profits,  then  the  employee's  stock  entitles  him 
to  his  fractional  share  of  the  accumulations; 
he  has  actually  earned  it  during  his  tenancy  of 
the  job.  That  is  what  he  gets  when  he  leaves. 
The  corporation  cannot  be  paying  cash  indis- 
criminately as  men  leave?  Then  the  amount 
due  may  be  paid  either  in  cash  or  bonds  or 
preferred  stock  as  the  corporation  is  able;  the 
retiring  worker  emerges  as  a  bondholder,  who, 
if  he  does  not  like  to  hold  his  bond,  may  sell  it. 
Asking  in  fine,  "Who  would  lend  money  on  that 
kind  of  a  proposition?"  the  writer  expresses  his 
belief  that  any  well-managed  labor  union,  demon- 
strating its  ability  to  manufacture  its  product  suc- 
cessfully, could  sell  its  bonds  as  rapidly  as  many 


96  TAKIN'G  A  LEAF  FROM  CAPITALISM 

concerns  whose  securities  are  marketed  every  day. 

But  all  this  sounds  complicated.  Here  is  what 
the  British  furniture  workers  are  doing  even  as  I 
am  writing  these  lines.  They  have  followed  the 
British  building  trades  in  the  formation  of  a  national 
cooperative  gild  to  produce  furniture  at  cost  for 
workers'  homes.  Cooperative  furniture-making, 
they  argue,  has  been  proved  a  success  by  the  large 
factory  of  the  English  Cooperative  Wholesale  So- 
ciety at  Pelaw,  and  they  hope,  by  producing  more 
and  better  and  cheaper  furniture  than  their  competi- 
tors to  absorb  gradually  the  entire  furniture  trade. 
This  is  a  licit  ambition.  For  this  purpose  they  are 
raising  the  necessary  capital  for  their  cooperative 
enterprise  among  the  workers  themselves  and  from 
the  C.  W.  S.  Cooperative  Bank.  Cooperative  labor 
banks  are  rapidly  being  formed  in  the  United  States 
as  well,  under  skilled  financial  management,  and  can 
give  similar  aid  at  home. 

The  one  danger  to  be  averted  in  this  movement 
is  its  absorption  by  Socialism,  of  which  it  is  the  very 
contradiction  so  long  as  the  shares  are  owned  by  the 
individual  workers.  Hence,  too,  the  frantic  efforts 
of  Socialists  to  gain  control,  and  the  confusion  in 
the  English  co-operative  movement.  Clear  Catholic 
thought  and  Catholic  leadership  are  needed. 


PART  TWO 
CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY 


99 

Ninth  Chapter 
Human  Equality 

I.     The  True  Concept 

"I. — Human  society,  as  God  has  established  it,  is 
composed  of  unequal  elements,  just  as  members  of 
the  human  body  are  unequal:  to  make  them  all 
equal  is  impossible,  and  would  be  the  destruction  of 
society  itself. 

"11. — The  equality  of  the  different  members 
of  society  consists  solely  in  this :  that  all  men  come 
from  the  hand  of  their  Creator ;  that  they  have  been 
redeemed  by  Jesus  Christ;  and  that  they  will  be 
judged,  rewarded,  or  punished  by  God  according 
to  the  exact  measure  of  their  merits  and  of  their 
demerits." 

Such  is  the  definition  of  human  equality  as  given 
by  Pius  X.  in  his  fundamental  regulations  on 
"Catholic  Social  Action,"  or,  as  this  is  frequently 
called  by  him,  "Christian  Democracy." 

It  is  conformable  to  "the  order  established  by 
God,"  he  continues  in  this  same  document,  that 
there  should  be  rulers  and  subjects,  inequalities 
of  rank  and  class.  It  is  not  the  province  or  the  desire 
of  the  Church  to  prescribe  any  form  of  government, 
whether  monarchical  or  republican ;  but  it  is  her  duty 


100  THE  TRUE  CONCEPT 

to  proclaim  the  rights  of  lawfully  established  author- 
ity. In  agreement,  too,  with  this  order  of  God's 
Providence  is  the  difference  between  "masters  and 
men,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned,"  since 
there  will  always  be  diversities  of  talent,  of  strength, 
of  health,  of  energy  and  enterprise,  and  hence  diver- 
sities of  wealth  and  learning  and  opportunities.  The 
latter,  indeed,  can  be  more  fairly  distributed,  but 
nature  itself  will  not  be  changed,  in  spite  of  all  the 
protestations  of  Socialism. 

But  the  one  point  to  be  insisted  upon  in  the 
doctrine  of  Christian  Democracy  is  the  "bond  of 
love"  which  should  unite  all  these  ranks  and  classes, 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  who  "should  help  one 
another  to  attain  their  final  end  in  Heaven,  and 
their  material  and  moral  well-being  on  earth."  This 
is  the  very  essence  of  Christian  solidarism. 

The  Motu  proprio  of  Pope  Pius  X  on  "Catholic 
Social  Action,"  from  which  the  above  passages  are 
quoted,  is  itself  based  entirely  upon  the  writings  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  whose  social  teaching  it  is  meant  to 
reaffirm.  Referring  to  the  doctrine  on  human 
equality  in  the  encyclical  "On  the  Condition  of  the 
Working  Classes"  of  this  great  Pontiff  of  the  Work- 
ingmen,  Cardinal  Manning  says : 

"Leo  XIII  points  out  that  the  equality  of  all  men 


THE  TRUE   CONCEPT  101 

is  contradicted  by  every  fact  and  condition  of  human 
life.  Both  the  gifts  of  nature  and  the  products  of 
human  freewill  introduce,  at  every  moment,  in- 
equalities which  are  lawful,  innocent,  and  fruitful 
of  every  kind  of  good.  Society  itself  would  not 
grow,  nor  w^ould  its  prosperity  and  power  be  de- 
veloped, if  all  men  were  equal.  And  as  society 
unfolds  its  own  perfections,  men  at  once  become 
unequal.  The  inequalities  of  age  alone  would  daily 
multiply  the  inequalities  of  early  and  middle  and 
mature  life.  If  we  were  all  equal  today,  inequalities 
would  spring  up  tomorrow.  And  these  very  in- 
equalities are  the  spirit  and  the  means  of  growing 
perfection.  'It  is  impossible  to  reduce  human  society 
to  a  level.  The  Socialists  may  do  their  utmost,  but 
they  are  striving  against  nature  in  vain'."  (See 
Ryan-Husslein,  "Church  and  Labor,"  p.  164.) 

Many  of  these  have  understood  the  folly  of  such 
contentions  and  merely  demand  an  equality  of 
opportunity.  This  is  perfectly  desirable  and  legi- 
timate, within  its  just  and  inevitable  limits.  But 
here,  too,  their  interpretations  run  riot,  and  justice 
and  charity  are  disregarded.  Equality  of  oppor- 
tunity, in  fine,  was  never  more  glaringly  denied  to 
men  than  when  Socialism  reached  its  acme  in  the 
Communist  regimes  that  immediately  followed  the 


102  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  JUSTICE 

World  War  in  Russia,  Hungary  and  Germany.  A 
handful  of  Communists  sought  to  keep  within  their 
own  grasp  the  opportunities  of  a  nation. 

//.     CImrcJi  and  Social  Justice 

The  attempt  of  Socialists  to  turn  into  ridicule  the 
position  of  the  Church  by  maintaining  that  all  the 
existing  conditions  of  excessive  riches  and  squalid 
poverty,  of  riotous  wealth  and  oppressive  labor  are 
condoned  or  even  championed  by  her  as  "the  will 
of  God,"  is  the  purest  injustice.  The  Church,  while 
defending  unconditionally  "the  order  established  by 
God,"  does  not  because  of  this  sanction  any  indus- 
trial iniquity  established  by  man  in  the  present  state 
of  society.  She  has  been  the  first  to  lift  her  voice 
against  the  abuses  which  today  exist,  and  as  long 
as  even  a  single  man  is  denied  his  just  wages,  or  a 
single  woman  is  bent  down  with  unnatural  toil,  or 
a  single  child  is  deprived  of  its  God-given  right  to 
love  and  happiness  and  all  the  due  development  of 
every  faculty  of  body  and  soul,  she  will  continue  to 
repeat  her  pleadings  and  denunciations.  Nor  is 
the  Church  indifferent  to  the  proper  education  of 
the  people  and  the  diffusion  of  true  knowledge,  since 
ignorance  and  prejudice  are  her  greatest  enemies. 
Least   of   all,    is    the   post-Reformation    capitalism 


CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  JUSTICE  103 

preached  by  her  as  "the  order  established  by  God." 
The  last  proof  that  the  Church  is  not  what 
Socialism  declares  her  to  be  is  the  undeniable  fact 
that  capitalism  has,  in  proportion,  driven  forth  from 
her  fold  more  souls  than  Socialism  has  ever  been 
able  to  wrest  from  her.  It  is  precisely  because  the 
ways  of  modern  wealth  can  too  often  not  be  squared 
with  the  principles  of  Catholic  faith,  that  a  transi- 
tion from  poverty  to  riches  has  only  too  frequently 
been  followed  by  a  separation  from  the  Church 
whose  restrictions  laid  upon  wealth  had  become  un- 
bearable, and  whose  mission  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor  had  become  a  scandal  and  a 
hindrance  to  social  advancement. 

It  is  on  this  ground  that  the  non-Catholic  his- 
torian Penty,  explains  the  Reformation,  The  German 
peasants  had  been  eliminated  by  Luther  when  he 
called  upon  the  princes  to  slaughter  them  without 
mercy.  For  two  centuries  thereafter  they  were  to 
be  reduced  to  a  condition  which  has  been  described 
as  the  most  oppressive  existing  in  all  Europe.  Of 
the  merchants  and  shop-keepers  who  supported  the 
Reformer,  Penty  says : 

"They  came  to  support  Luther,  not  because  they 
had  any  intention  of  living  up  to  the  ideals  of  the 
early  Christians,  but  because  they  resented  super- 


104  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  JUSTICE 

vision  and  for  long  had  chafed  under  a  religion 
which  taught  that  the  pursuit  of  wealth  for  wealth's 
sake  was  an  ignoble  and  degrading  thing,  however 
far  its  priests  fell  short  of  its  ideal.  So  they  wel- 
comed a  gospel  which  removed  such  supervision  and 
made  them  answerable  only  to  their  own  conscience, 
from  which  they  had  little  to  fear."  ("A  Gild- 
man's  Interpretation  of  History,"  pp.  152-3.) 

Nothing,  moreover,  could  be  more  opposed  to  the 
Catholic  doctrine  of  human  equality  than  those 
theories  which  long  were  the  support  of  capitalistic 
selfishness,  and  which  under  various  names  were 
known  as  Manchestrianism,  Liberalism,  or  Individ- 
ualism. Their  basic  principle  was  in  every  instance 
the  unregulated  freedom  of  individual  action  in 
industry  and  commerce,  which  in  turn  was  based 
upon  a  false  conception  of  equality.  This,  in  place 
of  leading  to  social  helpfulness,  was  made  a  justifi- 
cation for  every  form  of  greed  and  oppression.  All 
restrictions  on  labor  contracts  or  competition, 
whether  due  to  organization  or  state  interference, 
were,  according  to  such  theories,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  be  swept  away,  and  each  individual  was  to  depend 
upon  his  own  resources  for  success  or  failure.  It 
was  the  Darwinian  struggle  for  existence  legalized. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  "a  small  number  of  very 


COMMON   BROTHERHOOD  105 

rich  men,"  in  the  words  of  Pope  Leo  XIII,  were 
able  "to  lay  upon  the  teeming  masses  of  the  poor 
a  yoke  little  better  than  slavery." 

///.  Common  Brotherhood 
The  true  doctrine  of  human  equality  is  to  be 
found  in  that  concept  of  society  only  which  we  have 
described  as  the  system  of  Christian  Democracy, 
and  which  regards  society  as  an  organic  body, 
wherein  each  member  must  contribute  to  the  good 
of  all  the  others,  and  private  aims  must  be  kept 
subordinate  to  the  general  welfare,  as  Pope  Leo 
XIII  wrote : 

"Therefore,  just  as  the  Almighty  willed  that,  in 
the  heavenly  kingdom  itself,  the  choirs  of  angels 
should  be  of  differing  ranks,  subordinated  the  one 
to  the  other;  and  just  as  in  the  Church  God  has 
established  different  grades  of  orders  with  diversity 
of  functions,  so  that  all  should  not  be  apostles,  all 
not  doctors,  all  not  prophets ;  so  also  has  He  estab- 
lished in  civil  society  many  orders  of  varying 
dignity,  right,  and  power.  And  this  to  the  end  that 
the  State,  like  the  Church,  should  form  one  body 
comprising  many  members,  some  excelling  others 
in  rank  and  importance,  but  all  alike  necessary  to 
one  another  and  solicitous  for  the  common  welfare." 
( "Socialism,  Communism,  Nihilism.") 


106  COMMON  BROTHERHOOD 

Such  subordination  does  not,  however,  imply  an 
indignity  put  upon  any  class,  as  SociaHsm  teaches 
the  masses  in  order  to  rouse  them  to  rebellion.  It 
is  hallowed  by  Christ  Himself.  Accepted  joyfully 
for  love  of  Him,  it  is  lifted  to  a  sublimity  immeas- 
urably above  all  kingship  and  domination  of  earth, 
and  receives  the  promise  of  the  kingdom,  the  true 
riches  which  Christ  came  to  bring.  It  is  necessary, 
in  fine,  for  the  common  welfare. 

There  is  before  God,  as  we  well  know,  no  distinc- 
tion between  rulers  and  subjects,  the  former,  having 
much  to  answer  for,  run  greater  peril  of  their  soul : 
"For  a  more  severe  judgment  shall  be  for  them 
that  bear  rule.  .  .  .  For  God  will  not  accept  any 
man's  person,  neither  will  he  stand  in  awe  of  any 
one's  greatness :  for  he  hath  made  the  little  and  the 
great,  and  he  hath  equally  care  of  all.  But  a  greater 
punishment  is  ready  for  the  more  mighty." 
("Wisdom,"  vi.-6-9.) 

In  the  conception  of  society  according  to  the  ideal 
of  Christian  Democracy,  and  so  according  to  the 
mind  of  Christ  and  of  His  Church,  the  master  is 
for  the  servant  and  the  servant  for  the  master,  the 
employer  for  the  welfare  of  the  employed  as  much 
as  the  employed  are  to  contribute  to  the  good  of  the 
employer,  and  all  are  intended  for  the  glory  of  God 


COMMON   BROTHERHOOD  107 

through  Christ  their  common  Lord.  The  relations 
of  labor  are  meant  to  be  only  an  extension  of  the 
relations  of  the  family.  Laborers  are  to  be  re- 
spected and  treated  as  members  of  a  larger  house- 
hold. Besides  the  obligations  of  justice  and  charity, 
there  likewise  exist  the  mutual  duties  of  piety  or 
affection.  The  fact  that  even  to  mention  these  may 
appear  to  many  idealistic  and  visionary  in  our  day 
shows  how  far  we  have  drifted  away  from  Chris- 
tianity in  our  present  industrial  life.  And  yet  it  is 
not  true  that  these  obligations  are  universally 
ignored.  Much  less  is  it  true  that  they  can 
no  longer  be  observed.  The  principles  of  Chris- 
tian Democracy,  though  equally  ignored  by  the 
selfish  theories  of  rationalistic  capitalism  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  revolutionary  Socialism  on  the 
other,  are  nevertheless  for  all  time  and  can 
at  no  period  be  set  aside  with  impunity.  The 
realization  of  human  brotherhood,  let  us  re- 
member, can  be  attained  in  no  other  way  than 
through  Christian  charity.  As  Pope  Benedict  XV 
so  earnestly  reminded  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  his 
very  first  encyclical :  "In  a  particular  manner,  with 
all  the  forces  of  the  arguments  which  the  Gospel 
and  human  nature  and  public  and  private  interests 
supply,  let  us  be  zealous  in  exhorting  all  men  to  love 


108  KINDS  OF  EQUALITY 

one  another  in  a  brotherly  spirit,  in  virtue  of  the 
divine  law  of  charity.  Human  fraternity,  indeed, 
will  not  remove  the  diversities  of  conditions  and 
therefore  of  classes.  This  is  not  possible,  just  as 
it  is  not  possible  that  in  an  organic  body  all  the 
members  should  have  one  and  the  same  function  and 
the  same  dignity.  But  it  will  cause  those  in  the 
highest  places  to  incline  towards  the  humblest  and 
to  treat  them,  not  only  according  to  justice,  as  is 
necessary,  but  kindly,  with  affability  and  tolerance; 
and  will  cause  the  humblest  to  regard  the  highest 
with  sympathy  for  their  prosperity  and  with  confi- 
dence in  their  support,  in  the  same  way  as  in  one 
family  the  younger  brothers  rely  on  the  help  and 
defense  of  the  elder  ones." 

IV.    Kinds  of  Equality 

It  was  the  false  discontent,  unintelligent  and 
unjust,  which  Socialism  often  arouses,  that  made 
of  Cain  the  murderer  of  his  more  successful  brother 
Abel. 

Equality  may  have  many  meanings.  There  is 
political  equality,  which  has  to  a  great  extent  been 
achieved,  but  the  concept  of  which  is  often  based 
upon  incorrect  principles.  There  is  equality  of 
wealth,  which  can  never  be  attained,  though  the 


KINDS  OF  EQUALITY  109 

widest  possible  just  distribution  of  private  produc- 
tive property  is  the  aim  of  Christian  Democracy. 
Yet  even  then  all  men  can  never  reap  the  same 
rewards.  There  could  be  no  greater  injustice  than 
this.  The  definition  of  the  Communist  in  the  Eng- 
lish Corn  Law  rhyme  may  still  be  familiar  to  many : 

"What  is  a  Communist?     One  who  has  yearnings 
For  equal  division  of  unequal  earnings; 
Blunderer,  pilferer,  or  worse,  he  is  willing 
To  put  down  his  penny  and  pocket  my  shilHng." 

There  is  equality  of  social  classes,  which  we  have 
refuted  throughout  this  chapter.  It  is  of  the  very 
nature  of  society  that  inequalities  must  exist  here 
that  so  all  may  cooperate  for  the  common  good, 
each  in  his  own  place  and  function.  Finally,  there 
is  equality  of  opportunity,  which  before  the  law  is 
to  be  open  to  all,  and  which  is  to  be  furthered  to 
the  utmost  just  extent.  Yet  opportunities  will 
naturally  be  limited  by  the  inevitable  inequalities  to 
which  we  have  already  referred,  unless  we  would 
constantly  readjust  them  by  violent  means. 

The  true  equality,  the  one  whose  results  out- 
live the  changes  of  time  and  lasts  on  through 
eternity,  accordingly  as  we  have  availed  ourselves 
of  our  opportunities  here,  consists:  "in  this,"   as 


110  KINDS  OF  EQUALITY 

Pope  Pius  X  wrote,  "and  this  alone,  that  all  men 
come  from  God  the  Creator,  have  all  been  redeemed 
by  Jesus  Christ,  and  will  be  judged,  and  punished  or 
rewarded,  by  God,  exactly  according  to  their  merits 
or  demerits." 

The  promise  of  Socialism  to  the  laboring  classes, 
that  it  will  bury  their  crosses  forever  in  a  new  era 
of  social  equality  has  already  proved  itself  to  be 
idle  and  false.  The  hope  of  capitalism  to  hide  its 
own  beneath  a  bank  of  roses  is  equally  vain.  The 
unhappiness  of  the  godless  rich  is  no  less  deep  and 
dark  than  the  misery  of  the  poor  who  have  cast  off 
religion  because  Socialism  taught  them  to  reject  it 
as  "the  opium  of  the  poor."  That  is  the  Marxian 
motto. 

The  Church  neither  sides  with  the  rich  nor 
flatters  the  poor.  She  calls  upon  her  children,  in 
the  name  of  Christian  Democracy,  to  defend  the 
just  rights  of  the  worker  and  the  poor.  But  she 
knows  of  duties  as  well  as  of  rights,  and  to  all 
classes  alike  she  preaches  the  need  of  sacrifice  and 
love.  "He  that  taketh  not  up  his  cross,  and  fol- 
loweth  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me,"  are  the  Saviour's 
final  words.  There  is  no  other  royal  path  that 
leads  to  peace  and  happiness.  "Being  rich  he  be- 
came poor,  for  your  sakes ;  that  through  his  poverty 


KINDS  OF  EQUALITY  111 

you  might  be  rich,"  rich  in  that  spiritual  wealth 
which  alone  the  rust  shall  not  consume  nor  the 
moth  devour. 


112 

Tenth  Chapter 
Private  Ownership 

/.  The  Church's  Doctrine 
The  haze  of  modern  errors  which  enfolds  in  its 
obscurity  every  social  principle  is  nowhere  gathered 
more  densely  than  about  the  fundamental  doctrine 
of  property  rights.  Even  well-meaning  laborers  and 
employers  are  often  misled,  in  their  bewilderment, 
into  the  various  phases  of  thought  which  terminate 
in  Socialism  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  many 
extremes  of  capitalistic  excesses  on  the  other. 

Amid  the  general  confusion  of  contradictory 
views,  the  Church  alone,  guided  by  faith  and  reason, 
has  ever  held  the  safe  and  golden  means.  It  is  as 
wrong  to  invoke  her  authority  unconditionally  in 
defense  of  modern  capitalism  as  to  allege  it  in  sup- 
port of  Marxian  economics.  Yet  she  will  not  reject 
a  social  teaching  which  has  been  her  inheritance 
through  the  centuries,  merely  because  she  finds  it 
suddenly  proclaimed  as  a  Socialistic  discovery, 
neither  will  she  abandon  a  principle  of  justice  be- 
cause it  has  been  abused  in  the  name  of  capitalism. 
The  "sacred  rights  of  property,"  to  be  held  in- 
violate by  individuals  and  commonwealths  alike, 
are  those  which  are  founded  upon  the  laws  of  nature 
and  the  Commandments  of  God.    These  rights  arc 


THE   church's   DOCTRIN'E  113 

sacred  for  all  times,  and  in  their  principle  are  subject 
to  no  materialistic  evolution,  whether  in  the  Social- 
istic sense  or  according  to  the  doctrine  of  modern 
individualists.  They  are  thus  briefly  stated  by  Pope 
Pius  X  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  articles  of  his  Motu 
propria  on  "Catholic  Social  Action,"  and  may  be 
found  developed  at  length  in  the  Encyclical  of  Pope 
Leo  XIII  "On  the  Condition  of  the  Working 
Classes." 

"IV.  With  regard  to  the  goods  of  this  earth, 
man  has  not  only,  like  the  animals,  the  use  of  them, 
but  also  the  right  of  permanent  ownership :  and 
this,  not  only  with  reference  to  those  goods  which 
are  consumed  in  being  used,  but  also  with  reference 
to  others. 

"V.  Private  property  is  an  indisputable  natural 
right,  whether  it  be  the  fruit  of  labor  or  industry, 
or  the  transfer  or  gift  on  the  part  of  another,  and 
each  one  may  reasonably  dispose  of  it  at  will." 

In  these  articles,  therefore  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
vindicates  the  right  of  permanent  ownership,  not 
only  in  regard  to  the  goods  of  consumption,  but 
likewise  "with  reference  to  others."  That  these 
others  include  private  productive  property,  which 
constitutes  the  centre  of  Socialist  attacks,  is  evident. 
It  is  largely  against  Socialism  that  this  Motu  propria 


114  THE  church's   DOCTRriTE 

is  directed,  and  it  is  particularly  the  Socialistic 
doctrine  of  property  which  is  declared  to  be  opposed 
to  Catholic  morality.  Thus,  in  describing  the  ideal 
of  Christian  Democracy,  Pope  Pius  X  tells  us  that 
it  "is  far  removed  from  that  of  Social  Democracy, 
and  is  based  on  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  faith 
and  morality,  especially  on  that  of  never  attacking 
in  any  way  the  inviolable  right  of  private  property." 
(Art.  XII.)  This,  however,  does  not  imply  the  in- 
violability of  modern  capitalism. 

Property  is  said  to  be  rightfully  acquired  not  only 
by  labor,  but  likewise  by  industry,  transfer  or  gift ; 
"and  each  one  may  reasonably  dispose  of  it  at  will." 

Wisely  to  regulate  man's  inborn  right  to  prop- 
erty, just  so  far  as  necessary,  and  to  prevent  on 
the  part  of  owners  all  undue  aggressions  detrimental 
to  the  common  good,  is  the  function  of  the  State. 
But  to  hinder  altogether  the  use  of  this  right,  or  to 
restrict  it  to  such  an  extent  as  is  demanded  by 
Socialists,  would  be  nothing  short  of  tyranny  and 
injustice.  Economically,  Socialism  would  prove 
equally  disastrous  to  capital  and  labor.  Morally, 
however,  there  is  erected  against  it  forever  the 
insuperable  barrier  of  the  Seventh  Commandment, 
since  Socialist  philosophy  denies  the  obligation  of 
adequate  compensation.     It  is  this  godless  philos- 


THE   church's   DOCTRIN'E  115 

ophy  which  dominates  the  minds  of  the  leaders, 
howevermuch  individual  members  may  express 
themselves  as  opposed  to  it.  It  is  this  same  godless 
philosophy  which  has  everywhere  been  enacted  into 
deeds  where  Socialism  has  come  into  unhampered 
power. 

The  State  has  no  power  of  ownership  to  dispose 
of  the  private  property  of  citizens.  It  has  only  the 
power  of  jurisdiction  to  see  that  all  the  rights  of 
individuals  are  duly  respected  and  the  common  good 
is  sufficiently  consulted.  The  rights  of  property  are 
not  derived  from  the  State  or  the  law.  Neither  can 
they  be  made  or  unmade  by  a  majority,  as  Socialists 
claim.  They  lie  deeper  than  all  human  regulations 
or  evolutions  and  are  derived  through  nature  from 
God.  "Every  man  has  by  nature  the  right  to 
possess  property  as  his  own,"  wrote  Pope  Leo  XIII 
in  his  Encyclical  "On  the  Condition  of  the  Working 
Classes."  It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  see  that  as 
many  as  possible  be  enabled  to  actualize  this  in- 
definite right  vested  in  each  individual.  "The  law." 
he  continues  in  the  same  document,  "should  favor 
ownership,  and  its  policy  should  be  to  induce  as 
many  as  possible  of  the  humbler  class  to  become 
owners." 

There  is  question  in  this  portion  of  the  Encyclical, 


116  THE   church's   DOCTRIN-E 

it  should  be  noted,  of  productive  property  alone,  of 
land-ownership.  But  this  natural  right  to  "lucra- 
tive" property,  as  Pope  Leo  XIII  calls  it,  is  not 
confined  to  landed  possessions.  No  limitation 
excluding  the  means  of  production  is  ever  made,  but 
the  term  "private  property"  is  used  in  its  full  un- 
qualified sense  wherever  its  rights  are  spoken  of  as 
"inviolate" — subject  only  to  such  partictdar  restric- 
tions as  the  common  good  may  postulate  in  any 
given  epoch. 

Speaking  of  capital  and  labor  in  the  Encyclical 
just  quoted,  and  understanding  by  the  former  the 
possessors  of  productive  property.  Pope  Leo  thus 
plainly  defines  the  Catholic  position : 

"Just  as  the  symmetry  of  the  human  frame  is  the 
resultant  of  the  disposition  of  the  bodily  members, 
SO'  in  a  State  it  is  ordained  by  nature  that  these  two 
classes  should  dwell  in  harmony  and  agreement,  and 
should,  as  it  were,  groove  into  one  another,  so  as 
to  maintain  the  balance  of  the  body  politic.  Each 
needs  the  other." 

Commenting  on  this  Encyclical  in  his  "Social 
Questions  and  the  Duty  of  Catholics,"  Mr.  Devas 
says  that  the  Pope  insisted  upon  the  right  of  private 
ownership  "not  merely  to^  hold  stores  of  consumable 
goods,  but  permanent  sources  of  income,  land  in 
particular"  (p.  13). 


THE  SOCIALIST  ATTITUDE  117 

//.  The  Socialist  Attitude 
To  justify  their  attitude  Socialists  appeal  to  the 
right  of  eminent  domain.  On  this  point  we  need 
only  say  that  the  Church  fully  concedes  to  the  State 
the  right,  in  exceptional  cases,  of  appropriating 
certain  private  properties  necessary  for  the  common 
good,  on  the  supposition,  however,  that  proper  com- 
pensation is  made.  This,  it  is  plain,  does  not  in  the 
least  justify  the  State  in  appropriating  all  produc- 
tive property  to  the  extent  demanded  by  Socialism. 
It  is  the  same  fallacy  which  underlies  the  argument 
that  the  right  of  taxation  implies  the  right  of  con- 
fiscation. Because  a  part  may  be  taken  to  presence 
the  whole,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  whole  may  be 
likewise  seized  with  impunity,  as  Pope  Leo  XIII 
states : 

"The  right  to  possess  private  property  is  derived 
from  nature,  not  from  man;  and  the  State  has  the 
right  to  control  its  use  in  the  interests  of  the  public 
good  alone,  but  by  no  means  to  absorb  it  altogether. 
The  State  would  therefore  be  unjust  and  cruel  if 
under  the  name  of  taxation  it  were  to  deprive  the 
private  owner  of  more  than  is  fitting."     (Ibid.) 

Compensation,  moreover,  would  be  impossible 
under  Socialism.  Though  proposed  by  certain 
political  tacticians  within  the  party,  it  is  out  of  all 


118  THE  SOCIALIST  ATTITUDE 

question.  "Not  only  in  Great  Britain,  but  on  the 
Continent,  in  America,  in  Canada,  and  in  Australia, 
the  aim  of  the  Socialist  movement  is  confiscation," 
the  English  Socialist  candidly  wrote  in  its  issue  of 
April,  1908.  There  is  no  Socialist  authority  who 
regards  compensaton  as  a  duty  of  justice.  At  the 
best  it  can  only  be  a  matter  of  expediency.  "Ex- 
propriate the  expropriators,"  is  the  final  word  of 
Marx.  In  an  issue  preceding  the  Appeal's  attack 
upon  the  Federal  Judiciary  on  April  27,  19 12,  this 
organ,  which  then  numbered  among  its  editorial 
staff  the  oft-time  Socialist  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency, Eugene  Debs,  thus  plainly  outlined  its 
program : 

"The  Appeal  is  frequently  asked  how  the  Social- 
ists will  get  possession  of  the  railroads,  the  tele- 
graph, the  telephone,  the  coal  mines,  the  oil  fields 
and  the  instruments  of  production.  Let  me  say 
again,  as  I  have  said  frequently  in  these  columns, 
that  the  Appeal  is  in  favor  of  confiscating  them. 
Why  should  we  beat  around  the  bush  ?  To  buy  these 
and  issue  bonds  in  payment  and  then  enact  an 
income  tax  that  will  appropriate  the  capitalists' 
revenue  will  amount  to  the  same  thing  in  the  end." 

This  is  a  plain  and  true  statement.  Socialistic 
confiscation  and  compensation  would  differ  but  little 
in  practice. 


UNDER  CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY  119 

///.     Under  Christian  Democracy 

In  defending,  however,  against  Socialism  the 
doctrine  of  private  ownership,  even  in  the  means  of 
production,  the  Church  does  not  offer  any  sanction 
for  the  abuses  of  present-day  capitalism,  neither 
does  she  exclude  any  reasonable  extension  of  munic- 
ipal or  government  ownership  which  the  common 
good  requires,  since  by  this  latter  the  lawful  exercise 
of  all  rights  of  property  must  be  regulated.  As 
the  Irish  Bishops  in  their  joint  pastoral  of  19 14 
briefly  state  the  Catholic  teaching  on  this  subject: 

"The  State  or  municipality  should  acquire,  always 
for  compensation,  those  agencies  of  production,  and 
those  agencies  only,  in  which  the  public  interest 
demands  that  public  property  rather  than  private 
ownership  should  exist." 

The  ultimate  ideal  of  Christian  Democracy  in 
regard  to  private  ownership  in  the  means  of  produc- 
tion may  be  thus  briefly  reproduced  here  from  "A 
Catholic  Social  Platform,"  composed  by  the  present 
writer  as  a  brief  expression  of  Catholic  social  teach- 
ings and  aspirations: 

Equally  opposed  to  the  unnatural  abolition  of 
private  productive  ownership  under  Socialism,  and 
to  its  restriction  to  a  few  men  of  wealth  under  the 
post-Reformation  capitalism,  the  true  social  system 


120  UNDER   CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY 

advocates  instead  the  widest  diffusion  of  the  posses- 
sion of  productive  as  well  as  of  consumptive 
property,  that  as  many  as  possible  of  the  workers 
can  hope,  by  just  means,  to  become  sharers  in  it. 
And  this  personally,  and  not  merely  in  the  name  of 
a  Communistic  commonwealth. 

Such  possession  will  satify  the  aspirations  of  men, 
lift  them  above  the  position  of  wage-earners  only, 
and  help  to  their  full  and  harmonious  development, 
insuring  the  stability  of  the  new  social  order. 

Such  was  the  consummation  most  closely  attained 
when  Catholic  gildhood  was  in  its  prime  and  the 
in^uence  of  the  Church  effective;  when  the  appren- 
tice might  hope,  by  industry,  skill  and  virtue,  to 
become  a  master ;  when  each  lived  for  all  and  all  for 
each.    Such  is  the  Catholic  ideal. 

The  old  organizations  cannot  be  restored  as  they 
were.  But  it  is  possible,  in  the  words  of  Pius  X : 
"To  adapt  them  to  the  new  situation  created  by  the 
material  evolution  of  contemporary  society  in  the 
same  Christian  spirit  which  of  old  inspired  them." 

Such,  in  a  material  way,  are  the  cooperative 
trade,  credit  and  agricultural  societies  intended  for 
self-help  and  to  eliminate  a  wasteful  system  of  dis- 
tribution. Such  are  the  attempts  at  cooperative 
production,  where  the  entire  enterprise  is  owned  by 


UNDER   CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY  121 

the  workers  who  alone  receive  both  wage  and  profit, 
and  where  each  worker  is  personal  owner  of  shares 
and  participates,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  man- 
agement. 

Such,  too,  though  less  completely,  are  the  various 
plans  in  which  the  workers  own  a  considerable  part 
of  the  voting  stock.  And  such  in  fine,  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree,  are  all  copartnership  arrangements 
by  which  the  workers  share  in  the  corporate  stock 
and  reasonably  participate  in  the  industrial  manage- 
ment: the  regulation,  through  their  shop  gilds,  of 
hours,  wages,  discipline,  processes  of  production, 
etc. 

Since  every  business  is  constituted  of  money- 
capital  and  labor-capital,  it  is  unreasonable  that  the 
former  alone,  as  under  capitalism,  should  have  the 
entire  power  of  control  and  the  latter  be  subjected 
to  a  state  of  complete  dependence.  Men  are  more 
than  money,  and  persons  more  precious  than  ma- 
chinery. 

There  is  no  narrowness,  as  can  be  seen,  in  the 
Catholic  ideals  regarding  private  property.  The 
ownership  of  this  can  never  be  absolute,  in  so  far 
as  the  disposition  of  private  wealth  or  capital  is 
dependent  entirely  upon  the  Divine  will.  For 
ownership  means  nothing  more  than   stewardship 


122  UNDER   CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY 

for  God,  to  whom  alone  all  things  belong  absolutely 
and  ultimately. 

In  answer,  finally,  to  those  who  profess  to  see  in 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  a  "capitalistic"  doctrine, 
we  would  call  attention  to  one  important  word  in 
the  second  of  the  articles  we  have  quoted  from  Pope 
Pius  X.  Private  property  is  an  indisputable  right, 
he  teaches,  "and  each  one  may  reasonably  dispose  of 
it  at  will."  Not  any  arbitrary  use  of  ownership, 
consequently,  is  to  be  permitted,  but  only  such  a 
disposition  of  property  as  accords  with  right  reason. 
How  this  is  to  be  understood  we  find  fully  described 
for  us  in  the  Encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

By  one  word,  therefore,  are  excluded  at  once  all 
the  brutal  methods  of  competition,  based  upon  the 
Darwinian  survival  of  the  fittest;  all  the  many  un- 
scrupulous business  practices  which  today  lure  the 
unwary  to  their  ruin;  all  exploitation  of  the 
workers,  the  poor  and  the  unprotected.  In  so  far 
as  such  systems  are  made  to  represent  capitalism 
the  Church  is  its  most  deadly  enemy.  These  abuses, 
however,  do  not  of  themselves  constitute  the  system 
of  productive  property.  They  are  only  the  poisonous 
growth  of  Mammonism  upon  the  body  economic  and 
call  for  instant  and  relentless  amputation  in  the 
interest  of  the  common  welfare.     Yet  it  is  part  of 


UNDER   CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY  123 

the  campaign  of  Socialism  to  represent  the  Church 
as  the  champion  of  these  vices,  most  detested  by  her, 
in  order  by  such  methods  to  aHenate  her  children 
from  their  true  Mother.  It  is  only  by  misrepresen- 
tation, as  we  well  know,  that  such  a  purpose  can 
ever  be  accomplished. 

With  this  twofold  enemy,  therefore,  storming  at 
her  portals,  Mammonism  and  Socialism,  it  is  the 
basest  act  of  treason  for  any  of  her  children  to  pass 
over  into  either  camp  and  thereby  league  themselves 
with  the  forces  against  her. 


124 

Eleventh  Chapter 
Ozanam  on  Poverty  and  Wealth 

/.    "Back  to  the  Masses!" 

"Back  to  the  masses!"  was  the  cry  with  which 
Ozanam  startled  the  generation  in  which  he  lived. 
We  shall  not  convert  Attila  and  Genseric,  we  can  do 
nothing  with  the  men  who  are  misleading  the 
people,  but  with  God's  help  we  shall  convert  the 
people  themselves.  We  may  do  little  with  the 
luxurious  rich  and  the  men  of  letters  and  science, 
inflated  with  their  importance  and  centred  in  their 
own  conceit.  We  may  do  little  even  with  the  classes 
of  self-indulgent  Catholics  who  have  lost  the  spirit 
of  their  Faith  and  who,  in  education  or  in  social  life, 
are  exposing  their  sons  and  daughters  to  all  the 
dangers  of  the  new  paganism.  We  build  little  hope 
upon  them.  ''Since  the  fifth  century,"  says  Ozanam, 
"a  vast  number  of  saints  had  a  greater  liking  for 
the  Goths  and  Vandals,  the  Arian  and  idolatrous 
Francs,  than  for  the  effeminate  Catholics  of  the 
Roman  cities." 

Of  all  nature's  gifts,  learning  was  dearest  to 
Ozanam,  nor  was  wealth  ever  attacked  by  him  when 
justly  gotten  and  rightly  used.  Both  are  meant  to 
be  of  invaluable  service  to  the  Church  as  well  as  to 
humanity  in  all  its  needs.    But  it  was  the  poor  above 


"back  to  the  masses!"  125 

all  others  whom  Christ  sought  out,  it  was  in  the 
hordes  of  the  barbarians  that  the  Church  wisely  saw 
the  hope  of  the  future.  It  is  upon  the  masses  that 
the  strength  of  CathoHcity  must  be  built  in  our  age 
as  in  the  days  of  the  Caesars  and  in  the  days  of  the 
barbarian  invasion.  To  this  latter  Ozanam  figura- 
tively alludes  when  he  gives  us  the  watchword  of 
the  future :  Passons  mix  borbares.  Spend  yourselves 
upon  the  masses.  If  we  can  hope  nothing  from 
these,  he  argues,  "then  are  we  at  the  end  of  the 
world,  and  so  at  the  end  of  all  controversy." 
{"Lettres,"  II,  p.  224.) 

In  another  letter  he  writes :  "Are  we  not  like  the 
Christians  of  the  early  ages,  cast  into  the  midst  of 
a  civilization  which  is  corrupt  and  a  society  which 
is  decadent  ?  Cast  your  eyes  upon  the  world  which 
encompasses  you.  Are  the  rich  and  the  happy  of 
our  time  much  better  than  those  who  answered 
Saint  Paul,  'We  will  hear  you  another  time'?  Are 
the  poor  and  the  people  much  more  enlightened? 
Are  they  more  well-to-do  than  the  men  to  whom  the 
Apostle  preached?  For  the  same  evil  the  same 
remedy  is  needed.  The  earth  has  grown  cold.  It 
depends  upon  us  to  rekindle  the  vital  spark  which 
is  being  extinguished."    ("Lettres/'  I,  p.  148.) 

Education  has  greatly  advanced,  wages  have  been 


126  "back  to  the  masses  !" 

increased,  social  standards  have  been  raised,  but  the 
same  dissatisfaction  remains  among  large  classes  of 
the  people.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done?  Teach 
generosity  to  the  rich,  that  social  conditions  may  be 
more  equalized,  but  Christianize  the  masses.  The 
only  magic  that  can  unlock  their  hearts  is  charity. 
"My  children,"  said  Pope  Pius  IX  in  1855  to  the 
Vincentians  gathered  about  him  at  Rome.  "I  con- 
secrate you  Knights  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  world 
does  not  believe  in  preaching  or  in  priesthood,  but 
it  still  believes  in  charity.  Let  us  advance  to  the 
conquest  of  the  world  by  the  love  of  the  poor." 
What  are  these  words  but  an  echo  of  the  great  cry 
of  Ozanam. 

In  urging  generosity  upon  the  rich  he  reminds 
them  that  while  our  Lord  taught  us  to  ask  for  our 
daily  bread,  He  never  counselled  that  we  should 
make  provision  for  ten  years  of  luxury.  The  great 
value  of  wealth,  he  says,  is  the  possibility  it  affords 
of  making  sacrifices.  We  know  of  no  more  beau- 
tiful words  upon  this  subject  than  those  which  he 
writes  in  defense  of  property  in  "Les  Origines  dii 
Socialism" : 

"Christianity  does  not  weaken  property;  on  the 
contrary,  it  preserves  it,  as  the  material  itself  of 
sacrifice,  as  the  condition  of  self-despoilment,  as  a 


"back  to  the  masses!"  127 

part  of  that  liberty  without  which  man  cannot 
merit.  .  .  .  If  it  has  made  a  crime  of  theft,  it 
makes  a  duty  of  almsgiving,  a  counsel  of  the  aban- 
donment of  worldly  possessions,  and  a  state  of 
perfection  of  that  community  life  whose  attainment 
has  been  more  or  less  realized  in  all  ranks  of  Cath- 
olic society." 

Christianity  indulges  in  no  declamations  against 
wealth  as  such,  but  only  against  the  neglect  of 
justice  or  stewardship  on  the  part  of  the  rich,  which 
but  too  frequently  occurs.  It  is  not  against  riches 
that  the  "Wo"  is  uttered  in  the  Scriptures,  but 
against  the  injustice  and  inhumanity  that  have  so 
often  been  connected  with  the  ownership  of  them. 
In  the  words  of  Pope  Leo  XIII :  "No  one  lives 
only  for  his  personal  advantage  in  a  community;  he 
lives  for  the  common  good  as  well,  so  that  when 
others  cannot  contribute  their  share  for  the  gen- 
eral object,  those  who  can  do  so  are  obliged  to  make 
up  the  deficiency.  The  very  extent  of  the  benefits 
they  have  received  increases  the  burden  of  their 
responsibilitiy,  and  a  stricter  account  will  have  to 
be  rendered  to  God  who  bestowed  those  blessings 
upon  them"  ("Christian  Democracy.")  This  is 
true  also  of  the  gifts  of  intellect.  Ozanam  well 
understood  these  truths  and  sought  to  bring  them 
home. 


128  THE    VIRTUE    OF    ALMS-GIVING 

II.     The  Virtue  of  Alms- giving 

His  sharpest  lance  is  leveled  at  the  doctrine  of 
Socialism  which,  in  opposition  to  the  direct  teaching 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  condemns  the  giving  of 
alms.  How  little  Socialism  has  changed  in  spirit  is 
evident  from  the  opening  statement  of  his  article 
De  UAiimone,  published  in  L'Ere  Noiivelle,  Decem- 
ber, 1848.  The  words  which  occur  there  might 
have  been  written  today  with  equal  truth:  "It  is  a 
set  thesis  of  Socialists  to  denounce  alms-giving  as 
one  of  the  detestable  abuses  of  Christian  society." 
Human  pride  resents  the  dependence  which  it 
implies.  Yet  dependence  is  the  very  law  of  our 
being.  The  child  depends  upon  its  mother,  as  the 
mother  in  turn  depends  upon  the  love  of  the  child. 
In  a  thousand  things  we  daily  must  depend  upon 
our  fellow-man.  Seen  from  a  spiritual  vantage 
point,  the  dependence  of  the  rich  upon  the  poor  is 
far  greater  than  that  of  the  poor  upon  the  rich.  It 
is  not  merely  that  the  poor  afford  to  us  the  blessed 
opportunity  of  charity,  but  they  perform  a  ministry 
of  expiation,  a  sacrifice  whose  merit  returns  as  a 
blessing  upon  society  when  poverty  is  borne  for  the 
love  of  God.  There  is  no  comparison  between  the 
gift  of  the  rich  and  the  gift  of  the  poor.     The 


THE    VIRTUE    OF    ALMS-GIVING  129 

latter  is  unspeakably  more  precious.  But  these  truths 
can  be  fathomed  only  by  a  Christian  soul. 

"Do  not  say,"  he  argues  to  forestall  a  difficulty, 
"that  because  we  look  upon  misery  as  a  priesthood 
we  wish  to  perpetuate  it.  The  authority  which 
assures  us  that  we  shall  always  have  the  poor  with 
us  is  the  same  which  bids  us  to  do  all  we  can  that 
poverty  may  no  longer  exist.  It  is  precisely  'that 
eminent  dignity  of  the  poor  in  the  Church  of  God/ 
as  Bossuet  says,  which  places  us  at  their  feet." 

Those  who  know  the  road  to  the  homes  of  the 
poor,  who  have  brushed  the  dust  from  their  narrow 
stairs,  never  knock  at  their  door  without  a  feeling 
of  respect.  "They  know  that  the  poor  man,  in 
receiving  his  bread  from  them  as  he  receives  the 
light  from  God,  bestows  an  honor  upon  them.  They 
know  that  men  can  buy  admission  to  the  theatre  and 
public  fetes,  but  that  nothing  can  ever  pay  for  two 
tears  of  joy  in  the  eyes  of  a  poor  mother  or  for  the 
handclasp  of  an  honest  man  whose  return  to  work 
they  have  made  possible." 

Charity,  therefore,  is  for  Ozanam  the  great  solu- 
tion of  the  social  problem.  Charity  must  bridge  over 
the  chasm  that  yawns  between  the  rich  and  poor. 
Charity  must  overleap  the  difference  between  men, 
the  distinction  of  rank  and  fortune  and  learning,  to 


130  THE    VIRTUE    OF    ALMS-GIVING 

unite  all  men  in  one  true  brotherhood.  That  is 
possible  only  through  Christianity. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  first  duty  to  look  to  the  souls 
of  men  in  attending  to  their  temporal  needs. 
Charity  will  chasten  those  who  give  and  will  make 
those  who  receive  susceptible  to  the  lessons  of  divine 
truth  and  love.  Justice  will  thus  be  brought  back 
to  earth.  Nor  is  charity  to  be  extended  only  to 
those  who  are  in  need  of  alms. 

There  is  still  the  immense  class  of  those  who  need 
not  alms,  but  institutions,  as  Ozanam  wisely  says. 
Charity  impels  us  to  provide  for  these  by  the  neces- 
sary organizations.  "If  a  great  number  of  Chris- 
tians, and  above  all,  of  priests,"  he  wrote  with 
apostolic  fervor,  "had  but  occupied  themselves  with 
the  working  class  these  last  ten  years,  we  should 
be  more  secure  of  the  future.  All  our  hope  rests 
upon  the  little  that  has  been  done  in  this  direction." 
Christian  or  Catholic  labor  unions  have  since  then 
been  founded  in  many  countries  where  this  was 
possible.  In  other  instances  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Associations  were  established.  The  latter  organiza- 
tions are  not  intended  to  replace  the  labor  unions, 
but  to  supplement  them  by  a  sound  social,  economic 
and  religious  education,  connected  with  wholesome 
entertainment  and  mutual  benefit  foundations.     In 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN  131 

any  case  social  instruction  and  literature  must  be 
furnished  to  all  our  Christian  workingmen. 

///.    The  Good  Samaritan 

Allusion  is  frequently  made  by  modern  reformers 
to  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  in  order  to 
point  out  that  the  great  need  of  our  day  is  not  so 
much  the  cure  of  those  who  have  fallen  among 
robbers  as  the  proper  lighting  and  policing  of  the 
roads  in  order  to  prevent  future  outrages  and  pro- 
vide safety  for  passengers — in  a  word,  that  we  must 
strike  directly  at  the  causes  of  our  economic  evils, 
rather  than  concern  ourselves  too  greatly  with  the 
victims  of  them.  Socialists  even  look  upon  the 
lesson  of  the  parable  as  entirely  debasing  and 
opposed  to  revolutionary  ideals,  since  their  prin- 
ciples oblige  them  to  combat  Christian  charity  under 
every  form,  except  where  it  can  be  made  the  means 
of  revolutionary  propaganda.  Thus  they  are  willing 
to  advertise  their  cause  by  ostentatiously  transport- 
ing the  children  of  poor  striking  laborers  into  large 
cities,  there  to  parade  them  for  political  purposes. 

More  wise  than  either  of  these  classes,  and  deeply 
versed  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Scriptures,  Ozanam 
correctly  read  the  parable.  "Charity,"  he  says,  re- 
ferring to   the   obligations   of  the   State,   "is   the 


132  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN 

Samaritan  who  pours  oil  into  the  wounds  of  the 
traveler  who  has  fallen  among  robbers.  It  is  the 
duty  of  justice  to  prevent  the  attack."  (Melanges, 
II,  p.  586.) 

No  less  than  the  most  ardent  modern  reformer 
he  insists  upon  the  claims  of  justice  and  the  supreme 
obligation  of  jealously  watching  over  their  mainten- 
ance. Charity  and  justice  have  both  their  place, 
and  neither  can  ever,  even  for  a  time,  render  un- 
necssary  the  other.  As  long  as  human  nature  exists, 
with  its  physical  and  spiritual  ailments,  it  must  still 
be  a-thirst  for  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  and 
depend  upon  human  help,  nor  can  the  sword  of 
justice  ever  be  sheathed.  One  great  fact  there  is, 
which  will  always  remain,  and  with  which  we  shall 
always  have  to  reckon,  no  matter  what  social  order 
the  world  may  accept,  and  that  is  Original  Sin.  It 
is  therefore  the  duty  of  the  Christian  to  see  that 
just  wages,  sanitary  conditions,  reasonable  hours  of 
work  and  all  the  many  other  demands  of  justice  be 
duly  enforced.  But  in  the  meantime  the  work  of 
charity  must  continue,  bridging  over  the  social 
chasm  and  bringing  together  rich  and  poor  into  one 
Christian  brotherhood,  looking  to  the  soul  even  more 
than  to  the  body. 

It  is  society  itself,  as  Ozanam  wisely  says,  which 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN  133 

has  fallen  among  robbers  and  is  bleeding  from  her 
many  wounds.  Priest  and  Levite  do  not  now  pass 
by  unheeding;  but  in  her  frenzy  she  rejects  their 
service.  The  laity  must,  therefore,  come  to  her 
aid  and  help  to  staunch  the  flowing  blood,  and  pour 
the  oil  and  balsam  into  the  wide-open  wounds,  and 
gently  bring  her  to  that  divine  hostelry  of  the 
Church  where  her  wounds  may  be  healed  and  she 
may  be  fed  with  the  bread  of  immortal  life.  To 
sum  up,  we  conclude  with  the  following  forcible 
words  from  Les  Origines  du  Socialisme: 

"In  deciding  in  favor  of  property  for  well- 
weighed  reasons.  Saint  Thomas  did  not  renounce 
the  strong  maxims  of  the  Fathers,  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  quote  the  words  of  Saint  Basil  and  Saint 
Ambrose :  'The  bread  which  you  hold  back  belongs 
to  the  hungry,  the  garment  which  you  lock  up  be- 
longs to  the  needy  who  are  left  naked,  the  shoes 
which  are  rotting  in  your  mansion  belong  to  those 
who  go  unshod,  and  it  is  the  money  of  the  poor 
which  you  are  hiding  away  in  the  earth.'  These 
texts  are  familiar  to  Socialists,  who  abuse  them. 
But  Saint  Thomas  explains  their  true  meaning  by 
completing  their  sense  with  those  other  words  from 
Saint  Basil,  not  to  be  separated  from  the  preceding  : 
'Why,  then,  have  you  an  abundance  while  another 


134  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN 

goes  beg-ging,  if  it  is  not  in  order  that  you  may  gain 
merit  by  the  good  use  you  make  of  it,  and  that  he 
may  gain  the  crown  of  patience?'  And  he  con- 
cludes that,  according  to  natural  right,  the  super- 
fluity of  the  rich  should  be  devoted  to  the  necessities 
of  the  poor ;  but  because  there  are  many  necessities, 
and  because  the  goods  of  one  cannot  suffisce  for  all, 
the  economy  of  Providence  leaves  to  each  one  the 
free  dispensation  of  his  own  goods." 

Here,  therefore,  is  Ozanam's  solution  of  the 
problem  of  our  modern  unrest:  "Voluntary  de- 
spoilment in  place  of  spoliation,  sacrifice  in  place  of 
theft." 


1 


135 

Twelfth  Chapter 
Christian  Charity 

/.   The  Science  of  Charity 

That  charity  is  a  science  is  no  modern  discovery. 
In  the  first  pages  of  the  history  of  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  by  Saint  Luke,  we  read  of  men  particularly 
devoted  to  it  as  a  special  vocation  demanding  for  its 
proper  and  fruitful  exercise  the  grace  and  wisdom 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"The  Twelve,  calling  together  the  multitude  of 
the  disciples,  said :  It  is  not  reason  that  we  should 
leave  the  word  of  God,  and  serve  tables.  Wherefore, 
brethren,  look  ye  out  among  you  seven  men  of  good 
reputation,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  wisdom, 
whom  we  may  appoint  over  this  business.  .  .  . 
And  they  chose  Stephen,  a  man  full  of  faith,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  Philip  and  Prochorus,  and 
Nicanor  and  Timon,  and  Parmenas,  and  Nicholas, 
a  proselyte  of  Antioch.  These  they  set  before  the 
apostles;  and  they  praying,  imposed  hands  upon 
them."   (The  Acts,  vi:  2,  sqq.) 

There  is  question  here  of  more  than  the  mere 
practice  of  charity.  There  is  question  of  an  ordina- 
tion, while  charity  itself  is  the  duty  of  every  Chris- 
tian.    Charity  is  the  supreme  test  to  be  applied  at 


136  THE  SCIEN'CE  OF  CHARITY 

the  day  of  judgment,  according  to  our  Lord.  By  it 
in  particular  the  elect  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  lost.  But  the  charity  of  which  Christ  speaks  is 
that  by  which  the  giver  devotes  himself,  as  well  as 
his  gifts,  to  the  needy  and  afflicted,  the  charity  in- 
spired by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  directed  by  His 
wisdom. 

This  is  the  scientific  charity  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  under  which  pauperism  was  unknown  in 
the  ages  of  faith,  and  every  human  suffering  was 
made  the  object  of  organized  relief,  when  men  were 
found  willing  to  sell  into  slavery  their  own  bodies 
for  the  love  of  Christ,  that  they  might  save  both  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  their  fellow-men.  This  was 
scientific  charity  of  which  the  world  knows  little 
today.  To  renew  the  pristine  splendor  of  this  virtue 
Ozanam  founded  his  first  conference  of  Saint  Vin- 
cent de  Paul. 

The  Science  of  Charity  may  be  studied  in  each  of 
its  two  distinct  aspects,  the  one  temporal,  the  other 
spiritual.  Both  are  combined  into  a  single  exercise 
of  Christian  virtue  by  the  true  Catholic  charity 
worker.  Whether  enlisted  in  the  organized  army, 
or  serving  privately,  every  Catholic  is  called  to  be 
an  adept  in  this  supreme  science  of  Christian  Love. 

Considered  from  its  natural  point  of  view,  the 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  CHARITY  137 

science  of  charity,  like  that  of  philanthropy,  consists 
mainly  in  tracing  poverty  to  its  causes  and  seeking 
to  remedy  them.     Mere  temporary  relief,  as  the 
Catholic  charity  worker  well  knows,  is  insufficient. 
It  is  at  times  even  harmful  when  given  without  dis- 
cretion, no  matter  how  deserving  the  poor  may  be. 
True  charity  consists  in  meeting  at  once  the  urgent 
necessities   of  the  poor,   but  above   all   making  it 
possible  for  them  finally  to  help  themselves.     By 
tracing  every  form  of  misery  to  its  source  we  shall 
come  upon  evils  of  many  kinds.     The  removal  of 
them  will  not  merely  afford  the  only  true  and  last- 
ing relief  to  those  in  distress,  but  will  be  likewise 
a  real  service  to  society  at  large.     Questions  of 
character,  environment,   social  and  domestic  rela- 
tions,   and    others    of    a    similar    nature,    will    be 
seriously  taken  into  account  before  arriving  at  a 
final  solution.    If  scientific  philanthropy  has  worthy 
and  feasible  suggestions  we  do  not  hesitate  to  accept 
them;  but  what  we  shall  stand  most  in  need  of  is 
the  one  condition  demanded  by  the  apostles,  the 
grace  and  wisdom  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

To  give  wisely  the  alms  of  good  advice  and  moral 
assistance,  was  the  first  lesson  Ozanam  learned  from 
M.  Bailly,  who  presided  over  the  first  meetings  of 
the  young  men  whom  Ozanam  had  brought  together 


138  THE  SCIEN-CE  OF  CHARITY 

in  answer  to  the  taunt  of  the  St.  Simonians,  "Show 
us  your  works !"  The  first  case  dealt  with  by  him, 
to  use  a  technical  expression,  is  too  well  known  to 
be  circumstantially  repeated  here.  No  past  master 
of  scientific  philanthropy  could  have  "handled"  it 
more  perfectly.  Ozanam  did  not  merely  still  the 
hunger  of  the  poor  starved  woman  with  her  five 
children,  but  investigated  "the  case"  until  he  was 
able  to  free  her  from  the  brutal,  drunken  master 
whose  marriage  with  her,  Ozanam  found  to  her 
surprise,  had  never  been  legally  contracted.  She 
was  freed  from  his  pursuit  and  revenge  by  a  police 
order,  which  forced  him  to  remain  in  Paris,  while 
Ozanam  begged  the  means  that  enabled  her  to  re- 
turn to  her  mother  in  Brittany.  He  likewise  found 
employment  and  protection  for  her  two  eldest  boys. 
It  was  a  clean  and  perfect  solution,  a  masterpiece 
of  scientific  charity,  although  only  the  work  of  a 
beginner.  Yet  all  this  might  likewise  have  been 
accomplished  on  its  purely  material  side  by  scientific 
philanthropy,  though  not  with  the  same  grace  and 
sweetness.  Of  the  sublime  moral  effects  produced 
by  Ozanam  there  could,  however,  not  have  been  the 
slightest  question. 


CHRIST   IN'  THE   POOR  139 

//.  Christ  in  the  Poor 

The  Science  of  Charity  is  not  merely  material.  It 
is  above  all  a  spiritual  science,  and  so  differs  from 
mere  philanthropy,  as  much  as  grace  from  nature,  as 
heaven  from  earth.  If  the  purely  material  side  of 
charity  is  thought  to  call  for  teaching  and  training 
to  make  it  truly  effective,  and  raise  it  above  a  mere 
giving  of  alms,  the  spiritual  science  of  relieving 
poverty  requires  even  far  greater  care  and  study. 
It  can  be  learned  only  by  the  humble  of  heart.  And 
it  is  for  this  reason  that  Ozanam  always  insisted  so 
much  upon  humility  and  retirement.  This  charac- 
teristic it  was  which  at  once  caught  the  attention  of 
Leon  Le  Prevost,  who  thus  noted  his  impression  of 
the  first  conference  of  Ozanam : 

"There  is  here  at  this  time,"  he  wrote  in  a  letter, 
"a  splendid  movement  of  charity  and  faith;  but  it 
is  all  hidden  away  in  its  obscurity,  and  so  escapes 
the  notice  of  the  indifferent  world.  Out  of  these 
new  catacombs,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  a  light  will  go 
forth  for  the  world."  (Vie  de  M.  Le  Prevost,  p.  35.) 

There  is  something  mysterious,  sacramental, 
about  poverty  which  only  the  eyes  of  faith  can 
perceive.  "Blessed  is  the  man,"  says  the  Psalmist, 
"that  understandeth  concerning  the  needy  and  the 
poor."     The  poor  are  for  us  the  representatives  of 


140  CHRIST  IN'  THE  POOR 

Christ.  He  in  a  manner  identifies  Himself  with 
them,  so  that  the  good  we  do  to  them  is  done  to 
Him.  The  negligence  and  indifference  we  show 
towards  them  He  considers  as  affecting  Himself: 
"Amen,  I  say  to  you,  as  long  as  you  did  it  not  to 
one  of  these  least,  neither  did  you  do  it  to  Me." 
Such  is  the  final  word  of  everlasting  judgment.  God 
will  eternally  ignore  those  who  ignore  Him  in  the 
poor. 

We  readily,  therefore,  understand  the  reverence 
and  humility  with  which  Ozanam  appeared  in  the 
presence  of  that  mystery  of  poverty,  of  God  in  His 
poor.  So  far  from  looking  upon  the  poor  as  in- 
debted to  him,  he  most  sincerely  considered  himself 
highly  indebted  to  them.  He  rightfully  understood, 
and  ever  insisted  upon  this  fact,  that  the  gratitude 
of  the  giver  must  by  a  divine  logic  far  exceed  the 
gratitude  of  him  who  receives.  This  is  the  fun- 
damental principle  of  the  science  of  charity.  The 
poor  can  never  accept  as  much  as  they  give.  No 
man  is  a  true  Vincentian  who  has  not  thoroughly 
grasped  this  truth,  that  humility  and  gratitude  must 
be  on  the  side  of  the  donor. 

Hence,  likewise,  we  can  perceive  why  personal 
perfection  and  not  the  relief  of  poverty  is  the  first 
object  of  the  Society  founded  by  Ozanam.     It  is 


CHRIST  IN*  THE  POOR  141 

through  charity  that  personal  perfection  is  sought. 
It  is  by  prayer  and  frequent  Communion  that  his 
disciples  are  to  prepare  themselves  for  their  visits 
to  the  homes  of  the  needy  and  afflicted.  In  the 
same  manner  it  is  the  soul,  rather  than  the  body  of 
the  poor,  which  they  seek  to  cure  and  to  enrich. 
Temporal  assistance,  consolation  and  advice  are  an 
opening  and  preparation  for  spiritual  instruction  and 
counsel.  Properly,  therefore,  to  fulfil  their  sublime 
function  they  must  daily  seek  to  conform  more 
perfectly  to  that  ideal  pointed  out  to  them  by  the 
Apostles,  that  they  may  be  "men  of  good  reputation, 
full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  Wisdom."  Such  is  the 
science  of  charity  which  can  be  learned  only  in  the 
school  of  Christ. 

"Our  main  purpose,"  said  Ozanam  in  brief,  "was 
not  to  help  the  poor.  This  was  only  a  means.  Our 
object  was  by  the  practice  of  charity  to  strengthen 
ourselves  in  the  Faith,  and  to  win  others  for  it." 
For  this  reason  he  avoided  the  publicity  of  modern 
philanthropy.  The  grass  ever  remains  small  and 
lowly,  though  it  covers  the  entire  earth,  and  so  he 
wished  the  society,  of  which  he  considered  himself 
only  a  promoter,  to  remain  established  in  humility, 
no  matter  how  largely  it  might  gain  in  membership. 
Today  it  has  spread  everywhere,  fashioning  after 


142  THE  POOR  ALWAYS  WITH   US 

the  model  of  the  Divine  Master  countless  self- 
sacrificing  souls,  devoted  like  Him,  to  the  cause  of 
humanity. 

Such  is  the  splendid  answer  Ozanam  has  given 
to  the  taunt  of  the  Saint  Simonians,  the  Fourierists 
and  rationalists  at  the  University  of  Paris :  "What 
are  you  doing,  you  who  boast  of  your  Catholicity. 
Where  are  your  works  that  prove  your  faith,  that 
can  make  us  respect  and  accept  it?" 

///.   The  Poor  Always  With  Us 

Since  the  rise  of  Socialism  no  little  controversy 
has  been  waged  about  the  familiar  text  from  St. 
Matthew,  "The  poor  you  have  always  with  you." 
(XXVI:  II.)  Socialists  themselves  are  not  en- 
tirely agreed  as  to  its  meaning.  It  is  interpreted  by 
them  either  as  having  only  a  temporary  signification, 
or  else  it  is  taken  in  its  traditional  acceptation,  and 
quoted  as  only  another  instance  of  the  folly  of  the 
Scriptures  compared  with  the  economic  insight  dis- 
played by  Marx.  One  fact,  however,  is  evident  to 
us,  that  if  Christ  foretold  the  continuance  of  pov- 
erty upon  earth,  the  promises  of  Socialism  are  false. 

The  spirit,  on  the  contrary,  in  which  Catholics 
interpret  the  text  is  sufficiently  plain  from  the 
Encyclical  Rerum  novarum  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.   Re- 


THE  POOR  ALWAYS  WITH   US  143 

ferring  to  the  curse  which  rests  upon  the  earth 
under  the  ban  of  sin — "Cursed  is  the  earth  in  thy 
work ;  with  labor  and  toil  shalt  thou  eat  thereof  all 
the  days  of  thy  life."  (Gen.  Ill:  17)— the  Pontiff 
says :  "In  like  manner  the  other  pains  and  hardships 
of  life  will  have  no  end  or  cessation  on  earth;  for 
the  consequences  of  sin  are  bitter  and  hard  to  bear, 
and  they  must  accompany  man  so  long  as  life  lasts. 
To  suffer  and  to  endure,  therefore,  is  the  lot  of 
humanity.  .  .  .  If  any  there  are  who  pretend 
differently,  who  hold  out  to  a  hard-pressed  people 
the  boon  of  freedom  from  pain  and  trouble,  an 
undisturbed  repose,  and  constant  enjoyment,  they 
delude  the  people  and  impose  upon  them;  and  their 
lying  promises  will  one  day  bring  forth  evils  worse 
than  the  present." 

This  is  evidently  aimed  directly  at  the  false  hopes 
held  out  by  Socialists.  In  denying  that  these  hopes 
can  be  realized  we  do  not,  as  the  Socialist  press 
incessantly  maintains,  acquiesce  in  the  economic 
errors  or  iniquities  of  the  present  day  as  found  under 
capitalism.  On  the  contrary,  we  only  work  the 
more  persistently  to  remedy  existing  conditions. 
We  do  this  even  if  we  know  that  poverty  can  only 
be  lessened  and  ameliorated,  though  never  entirely 
banished  from  the  earth. 


144  THE  POOR  ALWAYS  WITH   US 

"The  poor  you  have  always  with  you"  is  the 
present  used  for  the  vivid  future,  as  the  parallel  at 
once  makes  plain  when  the  entire  text  is  given : 
''For  the  poor  you  have  always  with  you;  but  me 
you  have  not  always."  In  both  clauses  a  present  is 
used  in  a  future  sense.  "Have  for,  will  have," 
Migne  briefly  remarks  in  his  "Scripturae  Sacrae" 
(Vol.  XXI.  "In  Matth.")  In  the  same  manner 
Cornelius  a  Lapide  writes  upon  this  passage :  "The 
world  always  abounds  with  the  poor,  to  these  there- 
fore you  can  always  do  good." 

So  also  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  explains  our  Lord's 
defence  of  the  Magdalen :  "the  poor  were  always  to 
be  found  in  the  Church  and  to  them  the  faithful 
might  do  good  whenever  they  desired;  but  He  was 
to  remain  with  them  in  the  body  only  for  a  short 
time."    {"In  Matth."  Cap.  XXVI.) 

The  constant  insistence  upon  the  virtue  of  alms- 
giving in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  is  evidently  not 
meant  to  be  of  only  temporary  application,  as  it 
would  be  if  the  objects  of  this  virtue  were  hence- 
forth to  disappear  from  the  earth.  To  give,  how- 
ever, the  most  convincing  proof  it  is  sufficient  to 
instance  the  words  of  that  sentence  which  is  to  be 
spoken  by  Christ,  the  Supreme  Judge,  on  the  day 
of  the  last  judgment.    They  emphasize  the  practice 


THE  POOR  ALWAYS  WITH   US  145 

of  charity  towards  the  poor  as  one  of  the  principal 
tests  by  which  souls  are  to  be  saved  or  lost.  True, 
it  is  not  the  only  test ;  but  the  special  insistence  laid 
upon  it  for  the  entire  human  race,  past,  present  and 
future,  shows  that  there  will  always  remain  upon 
earth  the  need  of  charity,  that  the  poor  are  always 
to  be  with  us  even  to  the  end  of  time. 

"I  was  hungry,"  He  will  say  to  those  who  are  to 
be  saved,  "and  you  gave  Me  to  eat;  I  was  thirsty, 
and  you  gave  Me  to  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger,  and 
you  took  Me  in ;  naked  and  you  covered  Me."  And 
to  the  lost  He  will  say:  "I  was  hungry,  and  you 
gave  Me  not  to  eat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  you  gave  Me 
not  to  drink.  .  .  .  Amen  I  say  to  you,  as  long 
as  you  did  it  not  to  one  of  these  least,  neither  did 
you  do  it  for  Me."    (Matth.  XXV:  35  sq.) 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  objects  of  the  virtue 
of  alms-giving  are  still  to  remain  with  us,  no  matter 
how  we  may  be  able  to  lessen  their  number  or  relieve 
their  hardships.  But  this  fact  can  never  be  an 
excuse  for  so  much  easily  avoidable  poverty  in  our 
day. 

While  the  consequences  of  original  sin  will  con- 
tinue to  manifest  themselves  to  the  end  of  time,  as 
Pope  Leo  XHI  says,  we  are  to  do  all  in  our  power 
to  remove  the  causes  that  lead  to  human  misery. 


146   THREE  CLASSES  OF  CATHOLIC  CHARITY  WORKERS 

It  is  in  this  way  that  charity  is  doubly  blessed, 
blessing-  him  that  gives  and  him  that  receives. 
Socialism  would  not  lessen  poverty,  but  only  makes 
it  more  universal  than  it  has  perhaps  ever  been  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  Bolshevism  is  an  illustra- 
tion. Its  temporary  triumph  would  only  confirm 
the  truth  of  that  Church  against  which  all  its  arms 
are  turned. 

Poverty,  in  fine,  although  following  in  the  wake 
of  original  sin,  is  not  sin,  as  Socialists  define  it,  but 
more  frequently  than  riches  is  the  stepping  stone  to 
virtue,  and  the  means  of  mounting  to  the  highest 
sanctity. 

IV.  Three  Classes  of  Catholic  Charity  Workers 
How,  we  naturally  ask,  does  all  this  apply  to  the 
charity  dispensed  by  the  Catholic  Church  through 
its  institutions  and  individual  workers?  There  are 
three  classes  of  social  workers  in  the  Church :  the 
religious  consecrated  to  the  service  of  their  neighbor 
and  of  God;  the  Catholic  laymen  and  women  who 
without  any  monetary  recompense  devote  them- 
selves to  charity  according  to  the  measure  of  their 
possibilities  and  the  time  allowed  them;  and  finally 
a  now  happily  increasing  class  of  trained  salaried 
social  workers  who  give  their  whole  energy  exclu- 
sively to  organized  social  work. 


THREE  CLASSES  OF  CATHOLIC  CHARITY  WORKERS   147 

The  religious  receive  no  salary  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  They  are  devoting  their  lives  to 
this  labor  of  love  with  absolutely  no  personal  re- 
turns except  food  and  clothing  and  the  lodging  that 
shelters  them  in  common  with  those  entrusted  to 
their  care.  The  houses  they  build,  the  donations 
they  receive,  the  means  they  secure  by  arduous 
labor  and  self-sacrifice,  are  all  devoted  entirely  to 
the  service  of  the  poor,  the  suffering  and  the  un- 
fortunate, in  whom  they  gladly  serve  Christ,  their 
Lord. 

The  second  class  of  Catholic  social  workers  are 
no  less  unselfish  in  their  labors  for  the  afflicted 
members  of  Christ  and  no  less  noble  in  their  ideals, 
though  they  cannot  give  their  entire  lives  exclu- 
sively to  the  two-fold  service  of  religion  and  charity. 
They  represent  the  great  body  of  Catholic  laymen 
and  women  who,  individually  or  through  organized 
efforts,  are  going  about  doing  good  and  dispensing 
blessings,  after  the  model  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
and  the  Divine  Healer  of  the  souls  and  bodies  of 
men.  They  give  liberally,  not  merely  of  their 
means,  but  of  themselves.  Such  is  the  work  of  that 
magnificent  organization,  the  St.  Vincent  de  Paul 
Society. 

There  are  the  cases,  lastly,  where  salaried  social 


148  CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY 

workers  are  employed  to  perform  duties  that  call 
for  such  undivided  attention  as  can  only  be  given 
by  those  who  make  this  labor  their  life-work,  yet 
for  good  reasons  cannot  serve  without  some  re- 
muneration. These  workers  are  worthy  of  their 
hire.  The  general  purpose  in  calling  for  their  help 
is  not  to  relieve  Catholics  from  the  task  of  personally 
interesting  themselves  in  the  poor  and  the  afflicted, 
but  rather  to  make  this  personal  attention  more 
fruitful  and  to  prevent  all  interruptions  in  the  sys- 
tematic service  of  those  urgently  in  need  of  assist- 
ance. The  remuneration  of  these  social  workers  is 
not  likely  to  be  extravagantly  large.  Their  lives 
too  may  be  filled  with  the  purest  supernatural 
motives.  Their  labor  is  highly  honorable  and  can  be 
made  most  salutary  for  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the 
bodily  welfare  of  the  neighbor.  Indeed,  to  be  truly 
Catholic,  it  must  always  keep  both  these  ends  clearly 
in  view. 

V.  Catholic  Efficiency 
There  is  little  possibility  of  sinecures  in  Catholic 
organized  charity.  The  alms  dispensed  are  given 
directly  to  the  poor,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Vincen- 
tians,  or  expenses  are  reduced  to  the  minimum. 
Unprejudiced  testimony  to  this  effect  has  been  given 


CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY  149 

in  the  oft-quoted  words  of  Mr.  Rockefeller  in  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post: 

"Just  here  it  occurs  to  me  to  testify  to  the  fact 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  I  have  observed 
in  my  experience,  has  advanced  a  long  way  in  this 
direction  (i.  e.  in  the  direction  of  efficient  service 
for  the  welfare  of  our  neighbor  in  the  cause  of 
charity).  I  have  been  surprised  to  learn  how  far  a 
given  sum  of  money  has  gone  in  the  hands  of  priests 
and  nuns,  and  how  really  effective  is  their  use  of  it. 
I  fully  appreciate  the  splendid  service  done  by  other 
workers  in  the  field,  but  I  have  seen  the  organization 
of  the  Roman  Church  secure  better  results  with  a 
given  sum  of  money  than  other  church  organiza- 
tions are  accustomed  to  secure  from  the  same  expen- 
diture. I  speak  of  this  merely  to  point  out  the  value 
of  the  principle  of  organization,  in  which  I  believe 
so  heartily.  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  the 
centuries  of  experience  which  the  Church  of  Rome 
has  gone  through  to  perfect  a  great  power  of  or- 
ganization." 

The  work  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  both  in 
the  World  War  and  after,  is  a  splendid  illustration 
to  which  Mr.  Rockefeller  could  not  at  that  time 
have  referred.  At  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  in  1894,  when  the  question 


150  CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY 

was  raised  of  rendering  it  unconstitutional  for  the 
State  to  make  grants  to  private  institutions,  Mr. 
George  William  Curtis,  editor  of  Harper's  Weekly, 
said: 

"Various  statistics  have  been  given  us  to  show 
that  most  of  the  local  aid  has  been  granted  to  in- 
stitutions which  are  managed  by  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics. But,  unquestionably,  sir,  if  the  State,  as  we 
have  determined,  is  to  aid  charities,  it  cannot  avoid, 
at  least  proportionately,  helping  those  which  are 
under  the  care  of  the  Roman  Church.  It  is  impossible 
not  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  charitable  foun- 
dations of  the  Roman  Church  are  comprehensive, 
the  most  vigorous  and  the  most  efficient  known  in 
history."  (Meehan:  "Thomas  Maurice  Mulry," 
pp.  147,  148.) 

While,  therefore,  there  is  much  point  in  the 
application  of  an  editorial  remark  made  in  the  New 
York  World,  as  applied  to  many  non-Catholic  pri- 
vate charity  organizations  and  perhaps  no  less  when 
applied  to  our  public  administration  of  charity 
funds,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  application  made 
of  it  to  private  Catholic  charity.    The  World  said : 

"It  is  clear  that  the  middleman  furnishes  the  same 
problem  for  philanthropy  as  for  regular  forms  of 
industry.     Here  again  the  point  is  to  bring  the 


CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY  151 

producer  in  closer  touch  with  the  consumer  and 
effect  economies  of  distribution  which  are  impossible 
under  the  present  wasteful  methods.  Private 
charity  in  particular  has  much  to  gain  from  the 
abolition  of  sinecures  and  the  elimination  of  extrav- 
agance." 

The  ideal  of  charity  was  never  more  closely 
approached  than  in  those  "Dark  Ages"  when  "the 
economics  of  distribution  which  are  impossible  under 
the  present  wasteful  system,"  as  seen  outside  the 
Church,  actually  did  exist.  There  is  apparently 
need  of  efficiency  experts  in  organized  charity  "to 
put  it  on  a  Taylor  system,"  suggested  the  news  serv- 
ice of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  There 
has  never  been  a  more  efficient  "Taylor  system" 
than  that  in  use  by  many  of  the  Religious  Orders  in 
the  Ages  of  Faith,  and  no  less  efficiency  is  shown  by 
them  in  our  own  day,  though  with  less  ample  sup- 
port. The  "Reformers"  realized  the  efficiency  of 
Catholic  charity  work  in  their  day,  as  clearly  as 
does  Mr.  Rockefeller  in  ours.  Only  with  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries  and  the  confiscation  of 
their  goods,  which  were  the  dower  of  the  poor,  did 
pauperism  first  appear  and  lift  its  hideous  head  in 
Christian  lands. 

Slowly  the  world  is  perceiving  the  truth  of  all 


152  CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY 

this.  The  parrot  school  of  history,  which  thought- 
lessly repeats  the  same  hoary  falsehoods  is  gradually 
being  replaced  by  a  scientific  and  honest  investiga- 
tion of  facts  and  a  deeper  and  truer  knowledge  of 
the  past. 

Non-Christian  organized  charity,  public  or  pri- 
vate, and  non-Catholic  schools  of  philanthropy  can- 
not provide  the  most  necessary  part  in  the  training 
of  social  workers.  They  overlook  the  spiritual 
element,  which  even  a  non-Catholic  writer  describes 
as  the  most  important  of  all  factors.  The  social 
worker  must  be  deeply  imbued  with  the  realities  of 
the  supernatural  life,  if  he  would  properly  fulfill  his 
responsible  task  of  ministering  to  the  poor  and  the 
afflicted,  if  he  would  bring  back  order  out  of  chaos, 
if  he  would  restore  Christian  life  to  a  disordered 
family.  It  is  well  that  we  should  learn  whatever 
valuable  lessons  scientific  philanthropy  may  have  to 
teach  us;  but  we  must  seek  also  religiously  to  ac- 
quire from  far  higher  sources  than  economic  au- 
thorities, the  true  Catholic  science  of  Christian  char- 
ity. Very  far  are  we  from  approaching  the  wise 
thoroughness  with  which  charity  was  successfully 
dispensed  in  medieval  days. 

There  is  need  of  coordination  if  this  work  is  to 
be   scientifically  carried   on   in  our   large  modern 


CATHOLIC  EFFICIENCY  153 

cities,  where  Catholic  charities  have  already  taken 
root  in  a  thousand  places.  There  is  need  first  to 
survey  the  entire  field,  to  see  what  has  been  accom- 
plished and  what  remains  to  be  done,  to  avoid  waste- 
ful duplication,  to  coordinate  the  efforts  of  all  and 
evoke  a  new  spirit  of  cooperation,  to  study  the 
existing-  wants  and  possibilities,  to  plan  the  works 
that  must  still  be  undertaken,  to  compute  carefully 
the  entire  cost,  and  then  effectively  to  organize  for 
the  great  two-fold  end  of  raising  the  funds  that 
have  been  accurately  calculated  as  necessary  to  cover 
all  expenses,  and  of  carrying  out  in  every  detail  the 
undertakings  that  have  been  skilfully  charted  by 
expert  knowledge,  for  God's  greater  glory  and  the 
help  of  our  fellow-men.  While  the  existing  charities 
will  still  continue  as  before  to  draw  upon  their 
former  sources  of  assistance,  financial  or  otherwise, 
countless  new  veins  are  tapped  and  deeper  shafts 
are  sunk,  that  in  all  places  the  charity  of  Christ  may 
abound.  Finally  these  efforts  must  be  rendered 
permanent  by  an  unfailing  constituency  of  organized 
supporters  and  the  constant  stimulation  and  en- 
couragement from  above. 

Such  is  the  work,  such  are  the  methods  that  are 
now  being  put  into  effect  throughout  entire  dioceses. 
It  is  scientific  charity  charged  with  the  spirit  of 
Christ. 


154 

Catholic  Social  Action 
Pope  Pius  X 

In  his  "Fundamental  Regulations  of  Christian 
Popular  Action"  Pope  Pius  X,  briefly  sets  down 
the  social  teachings  of  his  Predecessor  Leo  XIII. , 
and  strongly  confirms  them  by  his  own  explicit 
renewal  of  them.  The  first  five  of  these  regula- 
tions were  studied  in  Chapters  IX  and  X,  Here, 
like  clear-cut  crystals,  are  nine  precious  clauses  on 
Justice,  Charity  and  Christian  Democracy: 

Justice  and  Charity 

"VI.  To  calm  the  strife  between  rich  and  poor, 
it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  justice  and 
charity.  Only  when  justice  has  been  violated  is 
there  a  right  to  make  a  claim. 

Obligations  of  Justice 

FOR    LABOR 

"VII.  The  obligations  of  the  poor  and  of  the 
workman  are  these:  to  perform  wholly  and  faith- 
fully the  work  which  has  been  freely  and  equitably 
agreed  upon;  not  to  injure  masters  in  their  prop- 
erty or  person;  to  abstain  from  acts  of  violence, 
even  in  the  defence  of  their  own  rights,  and  never 
to  turn  their  demands  into  disturbances. 


CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   ACTION — PIUS   X  155 

FOR  CAPITAL 

"VIII.  The  oblig-ations  of  justice  for  capitalists 
and  masters  are  as  follows :  to  pay  a  just  wage  to 
workmen;  not  to  injure  their  lawful  savings  by 
violence,  fraud,  nor  by  open  nor  hidden  usury;  to 
allow  them  freely  to  fulfil  their  religious  duties ;  not 
to  expose  them  to  corrupting  allurements,  nor  to 
the  danger  of  scandal;  not  to  entice  them  from  a 
love  of  their  family  and  from  careful  thrift ;  not  to 
impose  on  them  work  unsuited  to  their  strength, 
age,  and  sex. 

Obligations  of  Charity 

THE  RICH 

"IX.  It  is  an  obligation  of  charity  for  the  rich 
and  for  those  who  have  means,  to  help  the  poor  and 
needy,  according  to  the  precept  of  the  Gospel.  This 
precept  is  of  such  binding  force  that,  at  the  day  of 
judgment,  as  our  Lord  Himself  tells  us,  a  special 
account  of  its  fulfilment  will  be  required. 

THE   POOR 

"X.  The  poor,  on  their  part,  ought  not  to  blush 
for  their  poverty,  nor  disdain  the  charity  of  the  rich, 
above  all  when  they  think  of  Jesus  our  Redeemer, 
Who,  though  He  could  have  been  born  in  wealth, 


156  CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   ACTION PIUS   X 

made  Himself  poor  to  ennoble  poverty  and  enrich  it 
with  incomparable  merit  for  Heaven. 

Social  Organisation 
"XL  Capitalists  and  workmen  may  themselves 
largely  help  towards  the  solution  of  the  labor  ques- 
tion, by  institutions  formed  to  give  timely  aid  to 
those  who  are  in  need,  as  also  to  draw  together  and 
unite  the  two  classes.  Such  are  societies  of  mutual 
help,  numerous  private  insurance  societies,  what  are 
called  "patronages"  for  the  young,  and  above  all, 
working  men's  unions. 

Christian   Democracy 

"Xn.  This  solution  is  the  special  aim  of  the 
Christian  Popular  Action,  or  Christian  Democracy, 
with  its  many  and  various  undertakings.  But  this 
Christian  Democracy  ought  to  be  understood  in  the 
sense  already  determined  by  authority,  which  is 
far  removed  from  that  of  "Social  Democracy,"  and 
is  based  on  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  faith  and 
morality,  especially  on  that  of  never  attacking  in 
any  way  the  inviolable  right  of  private  property, 

"Xni.  Moreover,  Christian  Democracy  ought 
never  to  mix  in  politics,  and  ought  never  to  be 
made  use  of  for  party  purposes,  or  political  objects ; 
that  is  not  its  province ;  but  it  should  be  a  beneficent 


CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   ACTION — PIUS   X  157 

activity  in  favor  of  the  people,  founded  on  the  natu- 
ral law,  and  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel. 

"XIV.  In  carrying  on  its  work,  Christian 
Democracy  is  strictly  bound  to  dependence  on  eccle- 
siastical authority  by  complete  submission  and  obe- 
dience to  the  Bishops  and  their  representatives.  It 
is  neither  meritorious  zeal  nor  true  piety  to  under- 
take things  fair  and  good  in  themselves  if  not  ap- 
proved by  the  lawful  pastor." 

Of  the  above  clauses  the  first  six  are  condensed 
from  the  Encyclical  of  Leo  XIII.  "On  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Working  Classes"  and  the  remaining 
three  from  the  Encyclical  of  the  same  Pontiff  on 
"Christian  Democracy."  In  the  paragraphs  that 
then  follow  Pope  Pius  X  speaks  of  the  necessity  of 
centralization  of  Catholic  social  efforts  under  the 
direction  of  the  Hierarchy,  and  in  particular  lays 
down  rules  for  the  direction  of  Catholic  social 
writers.  The  main  point  dwelled  upon  is  the  obvi- 
ous necessity  of  their  whole-hearted  submissiveness 
to  the  spiritual  authority  established  in  the  Church 
by  Christ,  since  the  social  question  is  above  all  things 
a  moral  question  and  intimately  connected  with 
religion.  Here  is  the  concluding  regulation,  the 
spirit  of  which  should  animate  every  Christian  who 
approaches  the  great  social  problems  of  our  day : 


158  CATHOLIC   SOCIAL  ACTION PIUS   X 

The  Mutual  Bond  of  Love 

"XIX.  Finally,  let  Catholic  writers,  while  up- 
holding the  cause  of  the  people  and  of  the  poor, 
beware  of  using  language  which  may  inspire  the 
masses  with  hatred  of  the  upper  classes  of  society. 
Let  them  not  talk  of  claims  and  of  justice,  when  it 
is  a  question  of  pure  charity,  as  has  already  been 
explained.  Let  them  bear  in  mind  that  Christ  wishes 
to  unite  all  men  by  the  mutual  bond  of  love  which 
is  the  perfection  of  justice,  and  implies  the  duty  of 
working  for  each  other's  good." 


THE  APOSTOLIC   RULE  159 


The  Apostolic  Rule 

"I  beseech  you  therefore  brethren,  be  reformed 
in  the  newness  of  your  mind;  he  that  giveth,  with 
simplicity;  he  that  rideth,  with  carefidness;  he  that 
showeth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness.  Let  love  he 
without  dissimulation — hating  that  which  is  evil; 
clinging  to  that  which  is  good;  loving  one  another 
with  the  charity  of  brotherhood ;  zvith  honor  pre- 
venting one  another;  in  carefidness,  not  slothful; 
rejoicing  in  hope;  patient  in  tribulation ;  instant  in 
prayer.  Communicating  to  the  necessities  of  the 
saints.  Pursuing  hospitality.  Rejoice  with  them 
that  rejoice;  weep  with  them  that  weep;  being  of  one 
mind  to  one  another;  to  no  man  rendering  evil  for 
evil;  providing  good  things  not  only  in  the  sight  of 
God  but  also  in  the  sight  of  men."  {From  St.  Paul 
to  the  Romans,  XII,  as  collated  in  the  Encyclical  on 
Christian  Democracy.) 


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